Inverness, Leachkin Road, Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum Interior Digital image of E 3028 cn
SC 776619
Description Inverness, Leachkin Road, Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum Interior Digital image of E 3028 cn
Date 12/6/2000
Catalogue Number SC 776619
Category On-line Digital Images
Scope and Content Entrance Hall, Craig Dunain Hospital, Leachkin Road, Inverness, Highland (now closed) This attractive entrance hall, painted in light, bright, warm colours, has a coved ceiling and an elaborate plasterwork cornice. The walls are divided into three sections, with a panelled dado, and a heavily embossed wallpaper frieze. The section between dado and frieze is papered, and hung with photographs of the asylum. An archway, flanked by fluted pilasters, forms the entrance to the entrance corridor, and a gateway at dado height could be closed to restrict the entry of patients. The entrance to the asylum was designed to give the impression that new patients were entering a grand country house on the scale of the 'palace of a peer'. The philosophy of the asylum planners was to accommodate patients in a stable, homely environment, free from stress, and in comfortable, spacious, almost luxurious, surroundings. Colours were important, with dormitories, wards and corridors painted in 'bright and cheerful' colours and brightened by an abundance of flowering plants. 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. It was the third District Asylum to be built in Scotland, and occupies a splendid hillside site above Inverness. Additions were made in 1898-1901 to include male and female wards, and further expansion in the 1920s saw the construction of a recreation hall. 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.
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/776619
File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap
Attribution: © RCAHMS
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