Argyll and Bute Asylum - Scotland
Having not seen this place come up in a few years I was a bit sceptical on how it would turn out and hoped that the lack of interest in recent times was due to it being quite remote. With that in mind I headed up early one morning ready for the 6 hour drive. A few coffee stops later we arrived in the small-town of Lochgilphead and were greeted by a few Curious locals, it was almost as if they could smell the English on us.
Some asylums I've found you can roam the perimeter freely and not be bothered yet others you can't get near without attracting someone's attention. Argyll was more of the latter but with a public footpath running past the site we were able to somewhat reccy without looking tk suspicious
Security presence wasn't an issue (this could have been down to arriving on a weekday afternoon) but an army of Rmadillo's were scattered around the whole perimeter leaving virtually no blind spot. After spending a while getting nowhere and using the drone to scout for weak spots we eventually managed to find our way in through perseverance.
After a while inside we decided to work our way around the hospital starting from the top floors and going down. Heading up one of the many stairwells I had a shock when turning the corner we were greeted with a pesky Rmadillo plonked at the top of the stairs. I immediately threw myself back, landing on top of Dan who thought I was falling over. My attempt to quietly shout 'back back back' was misinterpreted by Dan as 'help help help' who responded by trying to push me back up the stairs into the path of the over seeing Dalek on Watch.
Once we composed ourselves and were fairly certain we didn't trigger it we headed back down approaching every corner with extreme caution. Luckily due to the size of the place we were able to avoid the other internal dillo's by taking advantage of the multiple stairwells as there were atleast 5 we encountered.
We spent most of the day carefully roaming the corridors. Unfortunately there has been a lot of modernisation throughout and even dental chairs left behind that look brand spanker. Some of the older sections do remain hinting at its former use. We exited with the last of the daylight fading away making for some nice external opportunities
History
“The Argyll and Bute Asylum, later Argyll and Bute Hospital, opened in 1863 as the Argyll District Asylum in Lochgilphead, becoming Scotland's first district asylum under the Lunacy (Scotland) Act of 1857. It served the vast counties of Argyll and Bute, officially becoming the Argyll and Bute District Asylum in 1868. Designed by Edinburgh architect David Cousin, the original "West House" featured a corridor plan, influencing subsequent Scottish asylums. The hospital aimed for self-sufficiency with farms and workshops. In 1883, a new block, known as the "East House", designed by Peddie & Kinnear, was added. Joining the NHS in 1948, it was renamed Argyll and Bute Hospital, with a new 30-bed extension opened in 1971. The facility closed to inpatients in 2016 and permanently in 2017. The Grade C listed "West House" remains, while the "East House" was demolished in 2020 due to safety concerns”.
