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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Kelly-Ann Mills

Inside creepy children's home for 40 boys on edge of seaside town left abandoned

A sprawling estate which was home to up to 40 boys at a time between the 50s and 80s has now been left abandoned.

Two urban explorers travelled to the Lisnevin Training School in Co Down which overlooks the Irish Sea and shared their finds on their TikTok @forgotten_treasures_irl

The 43 acres of land includes 27 residential buildings, a school building and numerous outbuildings.

It was originally built as a private summer mansion in the 1800s for wealthy Belfast mill owner John Gilmore Dunbar, but was later sold and became Millisle Borstal between the 1950s and 80s.

The youth offenders home had boys as young as 10 up to 17 on site, up to its closure.

Inside the old gym (@forgotten_treasures_irl/TikTok)
An abandoned corridor (@forgotten_treasures_irl/TikTok)

It was later used as a place for training prison officers, but has lay abandoned for at least the last five years.

The Tiktokers wer unable to gain access to the main Woburn House building but did get inside some of the outer buildings after finding a gap in the perimeter fence.

An industrial washing machine (@forgotten_treasures_irl/TikTok)
40 children would be on site at any one time (@forgotten_treasures_irl/TikTok)

The old building has walls and doors covered in graffiti, with some corridors having paint peeling from the walls.

A huge industrial washing machine is in another room while a full gymnasium and basketball court, can also be seen in a derelict condition.

The entire estate was sold for £1.75million in 2016 and the new owner has started to bring new life back into parts of the site.

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