Dungavel House

Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, near the town of Strathaven that is also known as Dungavel Castle or Dungavel House. It is operated by the American private prison firm GEO Group, under contract with the law-enforcement command Border Force for its detention of immigrants for the Home Office. It's the only such facility in Scotland.

The announced closure of Dungavel in September 2016 was rescinded in February 2017, with a planned replacement cancelled and Dungavel to remain open.

Originally a 19th-century hunting lodge and summer retreat of the Dukes of Hamilton linked to their then main house at Hamilton Palace, it was the home of the 13th Duke from 1919 following the demolition of the palace due to subsidence, arising from mining in the area.

Dungavel was the planned destination for Rudolf Hess's doomed 1941 peace mission, to seek the intercession of the 14th Duke of Hamilton with Churchill to try to end the war between Britain and Germany. Dungavel was sold on to the National Coal Board in 1947. It was then acquired by the government and turned into an open prison.

In 1979 Agnes Curran became the governor of Dungavel prison. She was the first female prison governor of a prison for men in Britain. Curran was surprised to be appointed and she had to deal with the attitudes taken by male staff and prisoners to a woman governor. She was given an MBE in 1974.

In 2001 its role changed and it is used for holding asylum seekers whose applications have been refused prior to their removal. It however, remains the final resting place for the thirteenth Duke of Hamilton, a naval officer whose grave lies within the close policies of the castle, once adorned with a ship's anchor.

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