Kingseat Hospital is a former mental health facility near

Newmachar Newmachar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland about 10 miles (16 km) to the north-west of Aberdeen. The settlement has a long history previously being known as Summerhill within the parish of New Machar, later being renamed Newmachar. So ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland. Some of the old hospital buildings now form the central area of the village of

Kingseat Kingseat is a village in Fife, Scotland, approximately northeast of Dunfermline. It was originally a coal mining village with the first pits sunk in the area in 1800. The name of the village is thought locally to have originated from when the kin ...

History

The hospital, which was designed by

Alexander Marshall Mackenzie Alexander Marshall MacKenzie (1 January 1848 – 4 May 1933) was a Scottish architect responsible for prestigious projects including the headquarters of the Isle of Man Banking Company in Douglas, and Australia House and the Waldorf Hotel in L ...

using a village-type layout, opened as the Aberdeen District Asylum in May 1904. Six additional villas were added later. The hospital was used as a naval hospital for wounded sailors who had been serving on

arctic convoys The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...

or the

atlantic convoys A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and then joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

as Kingseat Hospital in 1948. After the introduction of

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional ca ...

in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in April 1994. Many of the buildings have been demolished and the site has been redeveloped by Avant Homes for residential use.

New Zealand Kingseat

The New Zealand

Kingseat Hospital (New Zealand) Kingseat Hospital was a psychiatric hospital that is considered to be one of New Zealand's notorious haunted locations with over one hundred claims of apparitions being reported, . It is located in Karaka, New Zealand, south of Auckland and sinc ...

was named after the Scottish one, after Dr. Gray (Director-General of the Mental Health Division of the Health Department) returned from an overseas trip and felt it appropriate to have a sister hospital with the same name in New Zealand.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in Aberdeenshire Hospital buildings completed in 1904 1904 establishments in Scotland Hospitals established in 1904 1994 disestablishments in Scotland Hospitals disestablished in 1994 Former psychiatric hospitals in Scotland Defunct hospitals in Scotland