The abandoned Victorian ‘asylum’ in Glasgow – where ‘ghosts haunt halls’ & patients were subdued with straitjackets

GLASGOW is home to a spooky abandoned asylum with a dark history.

The derelict Gartloch Hospital, in the east end of the city, admitted its first patients in 1896 and officially opened as Gartloch District Asylum a year later.

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The psychiatric facility for “pauper lunatics” could hold more than 800 inmates and was designed by John Thomson, the son of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson.

During the Second World War it was used as an emergency hospital before joining the National Health Service in 1948.

Academic Robin Farquharson was reportedly an inmate at the hospital when he suffered with mental health problems.

The facility closed in 1996, and many of the surrounding buildings were converted into homes.

The main building remained intact but rundown, attracting urban explorers and photographers.

The facility included a 50-bed sanatorium ward for tuberculosis sufferers.

Mental health treatments were once inhumane, and included electroshock therapy, imprisonment, purging and lobotomies.

Staff reported a number of unsettling paranormal experiences while on shift at the hospital.

A nurse only referred to as Susan, told how she would sometimes hear a lock being turned and then footsteps ascending the stairs during night duty.

She recalled how she felt “cold” at the top of the steps.

A blog post on Spooky Isles reads: “In about 1984, around five or six o’clock one sunny morning, maybe in June, Susan and another nurse on duty on the ward were anticipating a possible visit from a charge nurse.

“Susan heard a lock being turned and footsteps. She went to the top of the stairs, to meet the person.

“She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and then saw a figure approaching, that of a woman of average height, attired in a grey tweed jacket, a long, grey tweed skirt, and a high-neck white blouse. Her hair was tied back. She appeared to be in her late 50s or early 60s.

“Thinking that it was a real person, Susan spoke to her, but received no reply.

“Instead, the figure looked Susan up and down with a kind of bemused smile, walked past her, and “kind of turned round to the back of [Susan]”.

“Susan turned round to see what was happening. The figure stopped, looked Susan up and down again, and then lifted off the floor at an angle, disappearing through the closed door of a nearby side room.”

In 2019, plans were approved to convert Gartloch Hospital into a block of 12 flats.

The building was even used to film BBC series Takin’ Over The Asylum starring Ken Stott and David Tennant.