Sinister images reveal a spooky Scottish wartime tuberculosis hospital where the superintendent believed the disease was spread by cats and ordered stray felines to be shot on sight.
Located just 30 miles from Edinburgh, the hospital has been left to rot since its closure in 1997. The hospital was used as a naval air station during the First World War. When tuberculosis cases began to rise in Scotland, the base was converted into a sanatorium, with open-air verandas being added to many of the buildings.
The exterior of the property cuts through the leafy Scottish landscape and appears remarkably intact, minus a few windows. The interior tells another story with walls crumbling and floors covered in debris, piles of mattresses filling rooms, and baby's prams can be found decaying on the hospital's grounds.
Rooms feature many disturbing items including beds once belonging to patients, seating that has begun to disintegrate, and children's dolls hanging from windows. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs and was one of the leading causes of death in the early 20th Century.
The hospital's first medical superintendent held some unorthodox beliefs about the cause of TB, believing it to be spread by cats. Nurses were reportedly instructed to shoot stray cats with a 12-bore shotgun.
Despite the eccentric orders of the man in charge of the hospital, there could be a grain of truth in his belief. In 2019, a Scottish family underwent testing for TB after their cats contracted a strain of the infection that is transmissible to humans.
With the onset of the Second World War, the hospital was repurposed as an RAF airfield serving as one of the country's main air defences and then reverted back to a sanitorium from 1949 until its closure.
Grant Vincent (@_grantventures) is the urban explorer behind these eerie images that were captured during his longest exploration to date.
"We were exploring this location for over three hours," he said.
"To begin with, I just felt the excitement of being on another explore, eager to start documenting the location.
"The more I moved through the hospital, the more haunting it felt.
"I could definitely feel some kind of energy in some of the buildings, especially the ones with beds and gurneys.
"The most shocking thing I encountered during the exploration was the sheer number of beds and gurneys we found ` even finding a whole room full of mattresses," he said.
"Also, there were a lot of old prams, cots, and other children's items which was really quite eerie.
"There was a surprise around every corner and that made for a great explore."
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