Urbex: Connacht District Lunatic Asylum aka St Brigid’s Psychiatric Hospital, Ireland – April 2017 (Part 2)

A Second Look: Scaling the Heights After a few unsuccessful attempts at other locations the following day, the pull of St. Brigid’s brought us back. This second visit allowed us to push deeper into the parts of the hospital that had remained hidden during our first pass.

20th Century Hardships and Closure While the early history was defined by overcrowding, the mid-20th century brought the “horror” of institutionalization. Patients often spent decades here, forgotten by the outside world. It wasn’t until the 1960s and 70s that the focus shifted toward community care, though the hospital didn’t fully cease its psychiatric operations until the early 21st century (with various units closing between 2001 and 2013).

The Clock Tower and the Medical Mystery One of the highlights of this revisit was finally gaining access to the Clock Tower. In a bizarre twist, we found the original asylum bell still hanging in its timber frame. It bore the scars of an attempted theft; thieves had tried to cut the massive bell in half to steal the metal, but gave up halfway through, leaving a deep, jagged gash in the bronze.

The surrounding outbuildings, which we initially thought were sealed tight, yielded one of the most striking finds of the trip: The Medical Mannequin. Found in a room filled with old medical supplies, this weathered, half-disassembled anatomical model sat like a silent patient, waiting for a doctor who would never return.

Photographic Highlights of Part 2:

• The Bell Tower: Rare shots of the internal clock mechanisms and the damaged bell, a testament to the hospital’s lost grandeur and the desperation of modern looters.
• The “Medical Room”: Photos capturing the mannequin and abandoned vials, symbolizing the shift from the “confinement” era of the 1800s to the medical treatments of the 1900s.
• The Exterior Stone Work: Capturing the sheer scale of the limestone masonry that makes this site one of the most imposing examples of asylum architecture in Europe.

Walking through St. Brigid’s was a reminder that while the buildings are grand, they were once containers for thousands of lost lives. As urban explorers, we capture the beauty of the decay, but we also document the heavy silence of a place that was once anything but quiet.

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading/checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂

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