Inverness, Leachkin Road, Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum General view Digital image of E 2982 cn
SC 776615
Description Inverness, Leachkin Road, Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum General view Digital image of E 2982 cn
Date 12/6/2000
Catalogue Number SC 776615
Category On-line Digital Images
Scope and Content Craig Dunain Hospital, Leachkin Road, Inverness, Highland (now closed) This red sandstone rubble hospital was built to the standard scale and plan of its time on a splendid 180-acre site on the side of Dunain Hill above Inverness. Its magnificent setting with views over open countryside was designed to stimulate the well-being of its patients, and aid recovery. The hospital was built with the ideal of accommodating patients, mainly pauper lunatics, in pleasant, spacious surroundings 'resembling the palace of a peer, airy and elevated, and elegant, surrounded by extensive and swelling grounds and gardens'. The window space was greater, and the corridors were wider than in ordinary domestic buildings, encouraging 'the sun and the air to enter at every window'. The view from the windows was 'unobstructed by shutters or bars', and there were no walls surrounding the hospital, allowing patients the freedom to wander in the grounds or work on the hospital farm. The air, sun and pleasant environment were designed to calm and relax the patient, to stimulate his mind and aid his recovery. Craig Dunain Hospital, designed by the Aberdeen architect, James Matthews (1808-98), opened in 1864 as the Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum with accommodation for 250-300 patients in single rooms. Additions were made in 1898-1901 to include male and female wards, and further expansion in the 1920s and 1930s saw the construction of a large recreation hall and a nurses' home. The last major building scheme before the hospital closed in 2000 included the construction of a new chapel which was completed in 1963. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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Attribution: © RCAHMS
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