I visited Fornethy House last year. Interested in old buildings I had intended to make a short film about the history of the house. However, the visit to Fornethy was not one that I found pleasant. The building is surrounded by dense woodland, abandoned cars, security fences and cameras. I therefore wrote a poem about Fornethy instead of making a film.
Fornethy House [image from CANMORE archive, now Trove]
Fornethy was in the news yesterday. Here is coverage from the Herald [4 December 2025]:
F O R N E T H Y
The woodland is dark.
I won’t go there again.
A lingering scent of childhood despair visibly threatens.
Fornethy.
Darkly secreted in the forest.
A grand house once full of ‘Adam fireplaces’,
bedecked with Miss Coats Fabergé eggs.
On her death, Miss Coats bequeathed her house to the children of Paisley.
In beautiful patterns of colour they came to stay at Fornethy,
for a country retreat.
But the woodland is dark.
The ‘school’ is now all boarded-up.
Window Tax abuse.
The futures of children.
Fornethy. Now the abode of 24 hour security surveillance.
BEWARE.