Who are we?
Jim Leslie was Head of Geography at Nairn Academy until 1991 when he was appointed Adviser in Social Subjects for Highland Council and, some years later, an Education Officer in Ross and Cromarty. He is now retired.
Steve Leslie is a consultant cardiologist in NHS Highland and based at Raigmore Hospital. He is also a visiting professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Steve and Jim Leslie established the History of Highland Hospitals project in 2008. A two year research programme was supported by the NHS Highland Endowment fund and the Centre for History at the University of the Highlands and Islands. We found over 60 Highland hospitals including fever hospitals, poorhouses, and maternity homes. Many of them are long forgotten. Some have few existing records. Since then we have discovered others!
In 2011, after more research, we started to produce books for each area of the Highlands. They were subsidised to keep the selling price low and it was hoped that as many people as possible would read them and respond to us with more information. This was indeed the case.
We created Old Manse Books to sell our books and hopefully raise enough to pay for the printing costs of the next one. However, sales were never sufficient to support printing costs - our main expense - and we had to increasingly rely on subsidy (we don’t take any fee for our work).
In 2022, we were fortunate to be awarded printing costs from NHS Highland Endowments for The Hospitals of Badenoch and Strathspey to commemorate the opening of the new hospital at Aviemore. The following year we received a grant from the Guthrie Trust to print The Hospitals of Ross and Cromarty.
Both of these grants allowed us to distribute our books at no cost and only charge for postage and packing if we have to deliver them. In the case of Ross and Cromarty we gave boxes of books to local museums which sell them at low cost providing a small return to them.
We are currently working on the history of the hospitals of Caithness and Sutherland in two separate volumes. These will be the last in our series of Highland Hospitals. We are hopeful that both will be issued in 2025.
We don’t just publish books. For several years annotated slide shows were run on the plasma screens in the waiting rooms of Nairn Hospital and Raigmore Hospital clinics. For the last 15 years, we have given several talks each year and we continue to do so. In 2024, in partnership with UHI, we developed an innovative free walking tour of the former hospital sites of central Inverness. By clicking on the Geotourist website, participants can receive a guided tour and commentary from Steve on their history. Some of these have never before appeared in accounts of local history.
If you have any information you wish to share or would like more information about our work please do not hestiate to contact us by using the contacts below or the feedback page.
Jim and Steve Leslie
Old Manse Books,
16 Southside Place,
Inverness IV2 3JE
Telephone 077 613 59546.
Email stephen.leslie@nhs.scot or jimleslie1@outlook.com