Interior View of Female Blue Room Digital image of E/4775

Description Interior View of Female Blue Room Digital image of E/4775

Date c. 1902

Catalogue Number SC 749524

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of E 4775

Scope and Content Female blue room, Craig Dunain Hospital (Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum), Leachkin Road, Inverness, Highland Craig Dunain, originally known as Inverness District Asylum, was opened in 1864. It was built on a magnificent site overlooking the Moray Firth some 3.2km south-west of Inverness. It was a vast and imposing Victorian hospital, 183m in length with a 27.5m-high tower on either side of the front entrance. This shows the blue room where female patients could relax (blue being considered a calming colour). The sexes were strictly segregated, women patients living on the east side of the hospital and men on the west where a similar blue room was provided for them. Every effort was made to furnish the public rooms in a cheerful, homely manner. Craig Dunain served the whole Highland region, including the Western Isles. In theory the patients were meant to feel secure and comfortable in these surroundings but it must have been difficult for people from small crofting communities to feel at home in this bewilderingly large, rather formal institution. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/749524

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap