Seacliff Lunatic Asylum

Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (often Seacliff Asylum, later Seacliff Mental Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital in Seacliff, New Zealand. When built in the late 19th century, it was the largest building in the country, noted for its scale and extravagant architecture. It became infamous for construction faults resulting in partial collapse, as well as a 1942 fire which destroyed a wooden outbuilding, claiming 37 lives (39 in other sources), because the victims were trapped in a locked ward.

Seacliff Lunatic Asylum
Geography
LocationSeacliff, New Zealand
Coordinates45.675254°S 170.622091°E / -45.675254; 170.622091
Organisation
TypeSpecialist
Services
Beds500
SpecialityPsychiatric hospital
History
Construction started1878
Opened1884
Closed1973
Links
ListsHospitals in New Zealand

The asylum was less than 20 miles north of Dunedin and close to the county centre of Palmerston, in an isolated coastal spot within a forested reserve. The site is now divided between the Truby King Recreation Reserve, where most of the old buildings have been demolished and most of the area remains dense woodland, and privately owned land where several of the smaller hospital buildings have been renovated completely.

Seacliff is claimed to be haunted by former patients of what was the country's biggest building at the time.

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