Inverness, Leachkin Road, Craig Dunain Hospital, Mortuary General view Digital image of E 3014

Description Inverness, Leachkin Road, Craig Dunain Hospital, Mortuary General view Digital image of E 3014

Date 12/6/2000

Catalogue Number SC 776720

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Mortuary, Craig Dunain Hospital, Leachkin Road, Inverness, Highland (now closed) This simple mortuary, used to keep the bodies of patients who had died until they were buried or cremated, was designed by the architects, Ross & Macbeth, and built within the grounds in 1907. It was constructed from the same red sandstone rubble as the main hospital buildings, with dressed stone margins around the windows. The roof is slated, and an attractive Victorian turret ventilator rises from the centre of the roof ridge. The physical health of the patients was a major concern during the early years of the hospital as epidemics such as scarlet fever and influenza, which could spread quickly throughout the patient population, were frequent occurrences. In 1900, for example, influenza caused the deaths of 13 patients. Consumption (tuberculosis) was also a particular cause for concern, and patients diagnosed with the disease were isolated. Many patients lived within the community for their entire lives and simply died of old age; others died as a result of their mental illnesses, victims of suicide, epilepsy, alcoholism or dementia. In 1907, the year the mortuary was built, there were 75 deaths out of a hospital population of 674. 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. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/776720

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap