This is part report and part leads and rumours really. Originally we had planned our trip over to Ireland to be a pretty laid back affair mainly based in the north with a few touristy stop offs on the way there and back from the Dublin ferry. However after seeing the effort @True_British_Metal had put into his leads and rumours thread about some of the Irish asylums that had 'closed' in recent years (some i knew of and some i didn't) we decided to extend the trip and try and get around as many as possible.
Heres how things went..
St Dympna's - Carlow: First stop on day one, we found little here to explore. By all accounts the hospital closed to inpatients in 2011 however its was more or less still fully occupied from what i could see, Certainly many cars and ambulances outside and nothing obviously empty. There was a small building on the other side of the main road that was empty, possibly the old doctors residence but my verdict would be: #not really worth looking at for the foreseeable!
St Senan's - Enniscorthy: This was one i already knew about, i was under the impression it was all empty but we arrived to find many cars parked out front. The building was plastered in modern CCTV cameras and it didn't look like we would have much success to start with but after a while of blatantly trying we managed to access the derelict area at the rear of the hospital which consisted of the kitchens, main hall, boiler house and a few other odds and sods..
After this very derelict area we decided to try our luck at the front entrance. Luckily it was deserted and we headed straight in up the stairs and had pretty much free run of all the wards.
Unfortunately i have to say the hospital was definitely much nicer to look at on the outside, the interior was a bit of a let down. The main bulk of the place seemed to have been quite thoroughly modernised in the 1970s. Granted we couldn't access the internal chapel or anything like the clock tower where epic may have been lerking hidden but we did get into the hall and well, it was a bit crap! (Maybe we are spoilt here in the UK because most of these Irish asylums seemed to lack an epic hall.)
St Otteran's - Waterford: Senan's had taken up a lot of the day so we were now in a little bit of a rush but we did find time to do a recce of Otterans. Approaching the building from the front it looked very similar to Dympna's. Loads of cars and no boarded windows! Once we headed around the the rear it looked very different however! Many of the rear wards and the hall were boarded. They looked very tight but there is definitely something to see here. They are building a hospital new building adjacent where i think the old boiler house would have been, this activity coupled with an active groundsman and lack of time meant we didn't have a go at getting in anything and chalked it up for a return trip. Worth putting on your list for sure.
St Luke's - Clonmel: Another stop as we were passing and another nice looking hospital with no signs of anything particularly explorable. Maybe give it a miss unless you have time to kill.
St Joseph's - Limerick: Another one i had seen before. I was quite excited to have a crack at it but it wasn't really to be! Theres deffo a substantial amount of derelict areas and they look very good but arriving late in the day we did one walk around not really seeing an opening and then ended up being nabbed by the night watchman coming on duty. Deffo put this on your list tho. A lot to see if you can find an opening. I think during the day the front gates are just open and you can go in as a lot of the site is still used for admin but around 7pm the gate house gets manned and the barriers go down.
Our Lady's - Ennis: Sacked off to go see the Father Ted house in the end. Hopefully will be there next time..
St Bridgit's - Ballinsloe: Tourist central but for good reason, this is one of the best. Ive been to a lot of asylums over the years but not many from the 1830s. The design is really interesting with the corridors radiating from a central admin 'hub'. In the UK all the asylums of this design were gone by the time i started to explore but in Ireland they seem to be quite common.
Access wasn't too taxing. The whole of the main building is a derp although there is still a bit of activity on the site so watch out whos looking through the windows at you! We hadn't seen any photos from the clock tower here so made that are main target. Access took a bit of finding as someone obviously had an account with screwfix but in the end we made it up there. What and epic little tower! 1830s bell and clock still in situe.
As we headed down the Laundry we realised we were not alone. Not sure it if was somone in there lookign for us or just other explorers but seemed to be the former.. We quickly took a few snaps and made our way out. One thing i will say is theres alot more to see here than just the main block. Plan in half a day and an early start to recce some of the other parts had who knows what else you might find. Dont believe what you see on reports is all there is!
St Loman's - Mullingar: Another one we stopped by as it was on our route. This is a mightily impressive building and also looked to have plenty of closed areas. Just needs some effort put in. Wish we had a bit more time that day!
Heres how things went..
St Dympna's - Carlow: First stop on day one, we found little here to explore. By all accounts the hospital closed to inpatients in 2011 however its was more or less still fully occupied from what i could see, Certainly many cars and ambulances outside and nothing obviously empty. There was a small building on the other side of the main road that was empty, possibly the old doctors residence but my verdict would be: #not really worth looking at for the foreseeable!
St Senan's - Enniscorthy: This was one i already knew about, i was under the impression it was all empty but we arrived to find many cars parked out front. The building was plastered in modern CCTV cameras and it didn't look like we would have much success to start with but after a while of blatantly trying we managed to access the derelict area at the rear of the hospital which consisted of the kitchens, main hall, boiler house and a few other odds and sods..
After this very derelict area we decided to try our luck at the front entrance. Luckily it was deserted and we headed straight in up the stairs and had pretty much free run of all the wards.
Unfortunately i have to say the hospital was definitely much nicer to look at on the outside, the interior was a bit of a let down. The main bulk of the place seemed to have been quite thoroughly modernised in the 1970s. Granted we couldn't access the internal chapel or anything like the clock tower where epic may have been lerking hidden but we did get into the hall and well, it was a bit crap! (Maybe we are spoilt here in the UK because most of these Irish asylums seemed to lack an epic hall.)
St Otteran's - Waterford: Senan's had taken up a lot of the day so we were now in a little bit of a rush but we did find time to do a recce of Otterans. Approaching the building from the front it looked very similar to Dympna's. Loads of cars and no boarded windows! Once we headed around the the rear it looked very different however! Many of the rear wards and the hall were boarded. They looked very tight but there is definitely something to see here. They are building a hospital new building adjacent where i think the old boiler house would have been, this activity coupled with an active groundsman and lack of time meant we didn't have a go at getting in anything and chalked it up for a return trip. Worth putting on your list for sure.
St Luke's - Clonmel: Another stop as we were passing and another nice looking hospital with no signs of anything particularly explorable. Maybe give it a miss unless you have time to kill.
St Joseph's - Limerick: Another one i had seen before. I was quite excited to have a crack at it but it wasn't really to be! Theres deffo a substantial amount of derelict areas and they look very good but arriving late in the day we did one walk around not really seeing an opening and then ended up being nabbed by the night watchman coming on duty. Deffo put this on your list tho. A lot to see if you can find an opening. I think during the day the front gates are just open and you can go in as a lot of the site is still used for admin but around 7pm the gate house gets manned and the barriers go down.
Our Lady's - Ennis: Sacked off to go see the Father Ted house in the end. Hopefully will be there next time..
St Bridgit's - Ballinsloe: Tourist central but for good reason, this is one of the best. Ive been to a lot of asylums over the years but not many from the 1830s. The design is really interesting with the corridors radiating from a central admin 'hub'. In the UK all the asylums of this design were gone by the time i started to explore but in Ireland they seem to be quite common.
Access wasn't too taxing. The whole of the main building is a derp although there is still a bit of activity on the site so watch out whos looking through the windows at you! We hadn't seen any photos from the clock tower here so made that are main target. Access took a bit of finding as someone obviously had an account with screwfix but in the end we made it up there. What and epic little tower! 1830s bell and clock still in situe.
As we headed down the Laundry we realised we were not alone. Not sure it if was somone in there lookign for us or just other explorers but seemed to be the former.. We quickly took a few snaps and made our way out. One thing i will say is theres alot more to see here than just the main block. Plan in half a day and an early start to recce some of the other parts had who knows what else you might find. Dont believe what you see on reports is all there is!
St Loman's - Mullingar: Another one we stopped by as it was on our route. This is a mightily impressive building and also looked to have plenty of closed areas. Just needs some effort put in. Wish we had a bit more time that day!
