Human Rights In 1950: The Barbaric Treatment Of The Mentally Ill Embody

In the late 1700s, Bedlam cells in an adapted coal cellar at Woolmanhill were used to contain mentally ill patients, a very unsatisfactory situation. Thus a site for a Mental Hospital was chosen, an enclosure known as Clerkseat, near Berryden. It was opened in 1800 and Aberdeens hospital for patients with mental illness, the Royal Cornhill Hospital still stands there today.

An obelisk in the grounds of Cornhill hospital commemorates John Forbes from Newe, Strathdon. Motivated by his friend...