Greenock's Bagatelle care home opens new garden area

Bagatelle’s visitors, residents and staff can now use its new outdoor area to take in scenic views of Greenock and the Clyde.

The care home, which is run by Greenock Medical Aid Society (GMAS), raised all of the money used to pay for the garden’s construction, and dedicated the new area to Margaret Colquhoun, a stalwart of the home and former resident.

READ MORE: Award for Greenock nurses with over a century of service

At the garden’s opening last week, GMAS chief executive Andrea Wyllie paid tribute to Margaret and also honoured former resident Michaelene McCluskey and Bagatelle’s first matron, Sandra Blair.

Bagatelle's new garden for residents and staff is now open. (Image: George Munro)

She told the gathered guests: “About a year before the pandemic, a resident said to me how lovely it would be to sit here and enjoy the lovely views with a good book.

“I completely agreed and from there the idea came for this project.

“Unfortunately, we were delayed by the pandemic, then the cost-of-living crisis. But eventually June McDermid, our fundraising officer, managed to raise every single penny for this area, so a big thank you to June for your tenacity with this project.”

Paying tribute to Ms Colquhoun, Andrea added: “Margaret spent her life helping others and supported many charities and we have greatly benefited from her dedicated service, her time and financial assistance.

"It is with great pleasure we name this garden after her.”

Margaret was born in Glasgow but lived and was brought up in Greenock.

A memorial plaque to Margaret Colquhoun at the new garden. (Image: George Munro)

She worked as a teacher for many years in the Renfrewshire area, teaching a range of subjects from Latin, Ancient Greek, French to mathematics and logic, and before retiring was deputy head of Castlehead High in Paisley.

Following retirement Margaret was sought out to be the sectary of the Bagatelle House Committee just before Bagatelle opened in 1991.

She stayed in the role until March 2020 when she came into Bagatelleas a resident for some much-needed respite.

Margaret stayed at Bagatelle until she sadly passed away in 2022.

Margaret Colquhoun served as secretary of the Bagatelle House Committee for nearly 30 years. (Image: George Munro)

Margaret’s friend, Morag Johnson, was invited to cut the ribbon to official open the garden.

Morag told the Telegraph that Margaret would have loved the outdoor area.

She said: “She would have been delighted with everything they’ve done.

“It’s a lovely way to commemorate her, she loved her garden.”

In her speech, Andrea also paid tribute to local nurse and midwife Michaelene McCluskey, who spent her final weeks in Bagatelle in 2022, and dedicated a bench to her memory.

Her son Martin, who is Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West’s MP, made a donation to the home and attended the opening.

He said he had a lot of happy memories of his mother’s time in Bagatelle.

Martin McCluskey and Bagatelle staff with the new bench in memory of Martin's late mum, Michaelena. (Image: George Munro)

He added: “Families a lot of the time feel that moving a relative into care is a really difficult decision, but the way I look at it is it probably gave us an extra year of quality time with my mum at a point where she was dealing with the really advanced stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

“The care here was second to none. There are lots of great care homes all across Inverclyde, but this is the one I’ve had a personal experience with, and they’ve done a great job.

“It’s great to be able to support them and to help them expand their facilities.”

A bench was also dedicated to the memory of Sandra Blair, who was Bagatelle’s first matron when the home opened in 1991, and who went on to run both Bagatelle and GMAS’s other local facility, Glenfield.

Sandra died in November 2022 but is still remembered fondly by staff at the home as a guiding light who helped build the two homes into the top class facilities they are today.