Recently you might have seen my Whitchurch report. Well as promised, here's a roundup of all the Welsh asylums I did on these two trips with @KismetJ plus one in Bristol on the way back along the M4. They weren't all successes, others were the result of multiple visits and planning. This report was in part inspired by the mega report by MotionlessMike which you can find here. I've also tried to include a few extras for variety, to avoid complete repetition and make up for the fails.
So for context, lets go back to the end of 2022. Kismet and I had just finished our Scotland asylum roadtrip (see my mega report on that here). We were wondering what to do next on the asylum front (watch out Ireland), and we decided to do a trip to Wales as it was a pretty obvious choice but I hadn't yet been to those. Kismet had already visited Denbigh and Talgarth solo, but the allure of Whitchurch and the other two extra nice ones had been calling. We saw a lot on this first trip but decided to return later in the year for some unfinished business which, well, still remains unfinished! Until anything changes, here's the result of the visits. Because this report will be another long one, here's the contents:
North Wales County Asylum, Denbigh
Mid Wales Mental Hospital, Talgarth
Swansea Mental Hospital - Cefn Coed
Cardiff City Lunatic Asylum, Whitchurch
Newport Borough Asylum, Caerleon - St. Cadocs
Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Brigend - Glanrhyd
Carmarthenshire, Cardigan & Pembrokeshire County Asylum
Bristol Lunatic Asylum - Glenside University Campus
So for context, lets go back to the end of 2022. Kismet and I had just finished our Scotland asylum roadtrip (see my mega report on that here). We were wondering what to do next on the asylum front (watch out Ireland), and we decided to do a trip to Wales as it was a pretty obvious choice but I hadn't yet been to those. Kismet had already visited Denbigh and Talgarth solo, but the allure of Whitchurch and the other two extra nice ones had been calling. We saw a lot on this first trip but decided to return later in the year for some unfinished business which, well, still remains unfinished! Until anything changes, here's the result of the visits. Because this report will be another long one, here's the contents:
North Wales County Asylum, Denbigh
Mid Wales Mental Hospital, Talgarth
Swansea Mental Hospital - Cefn Coed
Cardiff City Lunatic Asylum, Whitchurch
Newport Borough Asylum, Caerleon - St. Cadocs
Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Brigend - Glanrhyd
Carmarthenshire, Cardigan & Pembrokeshire County Asylum
Bristol Lunatic Asylum - Glenside University Campus
NORTH WALES COUNTY ASYLUM, DENBIGH
Status - Ruined
A beautiful shot of Denbigh in the snow by @KismetJ
Denbigh needs no introduction as an age-old classic. I first heard about it over 10 years ago in the days of Elwyn (RIP). By now it was looking pretty trashed and didn't have much appeal left but I knew that one day I'd still have to go out my way to see it and at least take a few externals. Denbigh Asylum began life during construction from 1844 to 1848; quite early of the county asylums, opening off the back of the County Asylums Act of 1808 which began provision for county-run asylums, and the Lunacy Act of 1845 which sought to shift the mentally ill from essentially prisoners to patients and provide them with better facilities. Denbigh was built in the typical corridor plan of the earlier asylums and housed around 1,500 patients at its height and finally closed in 1995. It is set for gradual redevelopment into housing.
Well we began the roadtrip with the drive to North Wales and hit Denbigh the following morning. As KismetJ hopped over the fence, I waited in the grass behind a small mound to hear him whisper 'there's security'. Next thing I know some bloke dressed in camo with a balaclava resembling teenage mutant ninja turtles is looking over me pathetically sitting in the grass. 'What do you think you're doing sir?'. Turns out he was very professional and frankly pretty good at his job. We wondered if he had been hiding in a bush in wait as he was carrying a fishing stool. Conversation was followed by 'so have you guys come from Essex?'. I mean c'mon, the accent can't be THAT obvious. He warned us we couldn't return anytime soon or it would escalate the matter, to which I said 'it's fair game, we gave it a go, you got us'. Like a true sportsman. It was all pretty smooth but annoyingly I'd failed on what I thought might be the easiest of the trip. I had to suffice with a few externals, which I'm fine with given the state of it, but I would've liked a shot of the frontage without the fence in the way.
Admin block
Chapel
Outbuilding (containing mortuary?)
Nurses' block
MID WALES MENTAL HOSPITAL, TALGARTH
Status - Ruined
Aerial by @KismetJ
A modern classic which has fallen to complete wrack and ruin rapidly after some dodgy shenanigans around 2010ish, involving the slate roof tiles being sold off at complete expense of the building. What was once a very fine asylum is now one of those fetid hellholes which leaves you feeling a bit dirty. On top of this, you have the bizarre situation of Mad Merv; the self-assigned guard of the property who is equally a trespasser yet spends his entire day driving up and down a 200m road patrolling the site. He'd even smeared what we believed was sheep shit on the window we climbed in and it absolutely stunk. Recently I saw someone attest it was human, possibly his own, which is absolutely vile. Annoyingly, if he sees you go down the access road but then disappear he'll know you've gone inside, so we had to feign leaving and quickly re-enter before we were spotted. The place is absolutely fucked but it still made for some good post-apocalyptic style shots with nature taking over. As we were getting back in the car Mad Merv pulled up next to us and held up a notepad as if it were a camera. He said nothing and drove off. A truly strange NPC.
Talgarth began as Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, and was opened officially in 1903. It was built to the more-modern compact arrow plan yet used stone rather than brick which was becoming less common. It eventually became Mid Wales Hospital, and closed finally in 1999. It was supposed to become a business park but this went into administration around 2008, and since then it's been left for dead. Tumbles' excellent report here follows the building's subsequent decline and it really is sad what happened.
Admin block
Passageway behind admin
Details inside Admin
Collapsed corridor
Corridor surrounding hall
Recreation hall
Eastern ward
Seclusion room
Chapel
Mad Merv - that car should tell you all you need to know about this bloke
Status - Ruined
Aerial by @KismetJ
A modern classic which has fallen to complete wrack and ruin rapidly after some dodgy shenanigans around 2010ish, involving the slate roof tiles being sold off at complete expense of the building. What was once a very fine asylum is now one of those fetid hellholes which leaves you feeling a bit dirty. On top of this, you have the bizarre situation of Mad Merv; the self-assigned guard of the property who is equally a trespasser yet spends his entire day driving up and down a 200m road patrolling the site. He'd even smeared what we believed was sheep shit on the window we climbed in and it absolutely stunk. Recently I saw someone attest it was human, possibly his own, which is absolutely vile. Annoyingly, if he sees you go down the access road but then disappear he'll know you've gone inside, so we had to feign leaving and quickly re-enter before we were spotted. The place is absolutely fucked but it still made for some good post-apocalyptic style shots with nature taking over. As we were getting back in the car Mad Merv pulled up next to us and held up a notepad as if it were a camera. He said nothing and drove off. A truly strange NPC.
Talgarth began as Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, and was opened officially in 1903. It was built to the more-modern compact arrow plan yet used stone rather than brick which was becoming less common. It eventually became Mid Wales Hospital, and closed finally in 1999. It was supposed to become a business park but this went into administration around 2008, and since then it's been left for dead. Tumbles' excellent report here follows the building's subsequent decline and it really is sad what happened.
Admin block
Passageway behind admin
Details inside Admin
Collapsed corridor
Corridor surrounding hall
Recreation hall
Eastern ward
Seclusion room
Chapel
Mad Merv - that car should tell you all you need to know about this bloke
SWANSEA MENTAL HOSPITAL - CEFN COED
Status - Mostly Disused
Aerial by @KismetJ
I'm going to open by saying this is the main one we didn't manage. After a recce on our first trip, we had found a potential way in and were keen to do it under the cover of darkness on our next trip. After speaking with @Bikin Glynn it would appear that they were pretty tight on this place nowadays, and whilst our intended route of attack might have been possible, it seemed like it would be an awful lot of effort for what it would be worth so we bottled it. Besides, we couldn't take two 5am starts in a row. It just gives off imposing vibes with its fortress-like shuttered sides and signs of monitor. I think with this one you're better off being patient rather than trying harder, despite our initial optimism. I'll be back.
The history of Cefn Coed (which means 'behind the woods') is a bit different in that it was began after 1908. However, due to shortage of labour and materials, it was halted with only the foundations ready in WW1. Building work began some time later in 1928, finally opened in 1932. It represents an Edwardian-style compact arrow asylum which looks older than its years. The hospital actually took a few patients from Talgarth. The site is still partially active with the western ward still in use, which likely explains its tighter measures, although the building is for the most part abandoned.
Admin block
Eastern wards & water tower
Rear of building
Chapel
Nurses block?
TBC...
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I do actually quite like having a look round the non-abandoned ones. I think the variety of different uses they've ended up with today is quite interesting.
