Country Estate

It looks like some baronial mansion in a massive highland shooting estate, maybe seen from in front of the local church, down in the village. Except, as we know, "the frame" can be deceptive. This was taken five minutes from our front door, admittedly with a long, 200mm lens and cropped to exclude other bits of the city that were visible. This is the Craighouse Campus of Napier Uni, although not for much longer as it has been sold to property developers to convert into housing. It was built in the 1890s as an extension to the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum (later the Royal Edinburgh Hospital). The new buildings at Craig House were planned by Dr Thomas Clouston, Physician Superintendent at the Asylum and designed by the architect Sydney Mitchell in 1887. The main building, New Craig House, was intentionally grand, resembling a country house or hotel rather than an institution. It is designed in a picturesque "free Renaissance" style, with elements taken from French Renaissance architecture. The hospital was renamed the Thomas Clouston Clinic in 1972, but closed in the early 1990s due to changes in the way mental illness was treated, and the increasing emphasis on care in the community. In 1994, Edinburgh Napier University purchased the estate, and the new campus opened in September 1996. It was sold earlier this year and should stop being used by the University by 2013. [Info from wikipedia] I was involved in a 48 Hour Film Project film that was shot in the grounds one day in May 2009 (Starfish). This city is like that for me, having lived here for twenty-five years - look into the distance and there are memories attached to the different places I can see.