This huge mental asylum was the first one built in Wales. Construction started in 1844 and four years later it opened. There were rumors about mistreated Welsh patients in English hospitals and asylums, so this this asylum was built to treat the Welsh people without language barriers etc. After several extensions from 1867 until 1956 the capacity was 1500 patients and 1000 staff members. Due to a new health reform the asylum closed in the late 1990s being 150 years old.

The place is listed and not possible to demolish. I read somewhere that plans for converting it into apartments are underway, but it is a serious and expensive job to fix this place. The inside is massively destroyed by vandals and water damage. The main hall was burned to the ground. The owners claim that kids did it, but others believe the owners set fire to it themselves to get rid of it. It must be difficult to own a place like this knowing that you have to preserve it.

On our way in we met a group of other explores just caught by the man guarding the place, driving around in a white van with his dogs. That didn’t stop us and we found our way in. We knew we had to be quick and the main goal was the exterior shot of the administration building. The inside was really, really decayed and we were only able to walk around on the first floor. We saw a lot of corridors, and took some pictures and of an old wheelchair and ran outside the front to shoot the facade. When everybody was happy we left in a hurry hearing the dogs barking at us in the distance.

The fantastic exterior of the admin building with the tower.

Administration building facade.

Corridor.

Hospital doors in decay.

Long corridors in all directions.

The old wheelchair.

Wheelchair closeup.

What used to be a main hall before it was burned down.

Danger ahead, collapsed ceiling.

Wheelchair in the corridor. Like those circular lights.

Another corridor.

Room on the first floor.

Behind the main entrance.

The door behind the main entrance of the building.