Kingseat conservation area....

.... has evolved on the land that once housed Kingseat Hospital 4 miles north of Aberdeen on the outskirts of Newmachar.

In the 1890s the increasing incidence of lunacy in North-East of Scotland led to Kingseat Asylum being built. The hospital opened in 1904 for the accommodation and treatment of pauper lunatics in the city of Aberdeen.

The institution was built on a revolutionary villa system of numerous large blocks / wards, a chapel, and administration blocks spread over a large area of natural beauty.

The hospital continued to admit patients until the 1990s when the growing emphasis on care in the community led to a decline in numbers. Kingseat Hospital was closed at the end of March 1995.

(I accept no responsibility for the wording of the above text!)

In the the last 5 years a tasteful housing development has sprung up in the former hospital grounds, alongside executive apartments in some of the original hospital buildings.

Backblip. Travelled up to Aberdeen yesterday to spend a couple of nights with number 1 son S and daughter-in-law J.