Former officers' mess up for sale for £200k

The building, empty for decades, is being sold by Remax in Lanark, with an asking price of £200,000.

Winston Barracks was built during the Second World War for the Cameronians (Scottish rifles), and the site was owned by the Ministry of Defence until the 1990s.

At one point, there were plans for it to be used as a military hospital.

The site was later bought by a development company, and ambitious plans were approved in 2007 for a total of 348 houses, well in excess of what the council had originally outlined in its local plan for the area.

But most were never built, and developer Kier Residential closed its Scottish offices as the credit crunch bit in 2008.

However, the Sandhurst Building, a category-B listed structure, was turned into 20 townhouses and 16 two-bedroom flats, and the sergeants’ mess became a family home.

Planning permission was granted in 2009 for the officers’ mess, also a listed building, to be turned into a health club and spa, but that too has now lapsed, and the building has been targeted by vandals.

In November last year, planning permission was granted for housing at the fourth historic building on the barracks site, its gatehouse.

Planners agreed that the 1930s building could be demolished to make way for 13 houses to be built in its place.

The officers’ mess is now being sold as a development opportunity.