in 1920 the house was purchased by lanarkshire county council for £10,000, and opened in july 1923 as a "certified institution for mental defectives" under the terms of the mental deficiency and lunacy (scotland) act 1913.the hospital cared for boys and girls with learning disabilities, and was "one of the few psychiatric hospitals which dealt exclusively with children." following the reorganisation of mental health care in the 1990s, the hospital closed fully in 2005.