A team of urban explorers have shared eerie images of a former psychiatric hospital in Dumfries.
Members of Dark Explores UK, PJ Exploration, Peaky Explorers and Derelict Detective have accessed the historic Crichton Hall – previously Crichton Royal Hospital – in Dumfries.
The pictures, shared on Facebook, reveal what life used to be like in the historic building, which is set to become a five-star hotel.
Elizabeth Crichton used the legacy of her late husband, Dr James Crichton, to establish a ‘lunatic asylum’, having been thwarted in her attempts to open a university on the site.
Ironically, no fewer than five universities and colleges now have a site on the estate.
The Crichton Institution for Lunatics, Dumfries opened in 1839, receiving its Royal status the following year.
Accord to Secret Dumfries by Mary Smith and Keith Kirk, initial adverts made it sound like a luxury hotel, with meals even including wine and game.
It even hosted theatre performances and may have been the site of the first nursing lectures in the country.
Shortly after the Second World War, the hospital became part of the NHS and continued to run until the last patients left in 2011.
Crichton Hall continued to act as the headquarters for the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway until the new DGRI opened in 2017.
In 2019, the health board sold it for £50,000 – claiming the move would save £800,000 a year in running costs, with the maintenance backlog coming in at an estimated £10 million.
Jed and Joanne Clark, who were the owners of Fonab Castle Hotel in Potlochry, bought the site and planned to turn it into a five-star hotel, creating hundreds of jobs in the process.
However, thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t until 2024 that planning permission for the changes to the listed building was granted.
See more at the Dark Explores UK Facebook page.