Mayday Hills lunatic asylum, Beechworth

[teabagg]

The Border Mail, April 22, 2008

Asylum a haunting attraction

The latest Beechworth tourist attraction is knocking them dead. Nightly ghost tours of the Mayday Hills lunatic asylum have been held every evening since Good Friday just to keep pace with demand.

At its peak the asylum that dates back to 1867, held 1200 patients. More then 3000 people died within it's 3m- high walls. Some died peacefully, but there are others, like the women thrown from one of the towers by her fellow patients, that haunt the imagination and, according to one visitor, the main building.

As ghoul guide Adam Jenkins explains, if there were going to be ghosts anywhere it is goinig to be the asylum.
" A visitor took a photo of the tower one night and when it was downloaded onto a computer there was a face of a woman in the window," he said.
" People on the tours repeatedly tell us we are being followed by three men, one very serious the other two joking around.
" Irrespective of what you believe it is a little spooky that the same story keeps bobbing up.
" And of course ther are noises, sometimes it's footsteps and other times tapping on glass."
Mr Jenkins said the instant success of the tours has come as a shock.
" It had been an idea for some time but we have been taken aback by the demand," he said.
The tours are not recommended for young children.



.......... I certainly intend to check it out, even if I do wet my pants! It's a creepy, creepy place!

[catseyes]

Sounds cool, and not that far away!   there is an astounding amount of asylums in Australia!

[Sas]

OK C well we'll get in that way then.... Dude is back in the clinic anyway, up for a ghost tour ?

[Christine]

Maybe we need to write another letter.

[BLiSsFuL~*]

i was  going to go there last week but missed the tour grrrrrr am going again in a couple of weeeks. i dont live very far from there.

[chaney]

A friend of mine did this ghost tour. She thought it was better than Q station, given more people died here. You can also stay there in accommodation on site. One such place is called the Gatehouse which takes 17 people.

She also mentioned that at beechworth cemetery, those that died at the asylum, their headstones actually face backwards.

Cheers, Chantel

[teabagg]

that is creepy!
why do they face backwards??!!

[Alien88]

I have read somewhere that spirits are more likely to hang around movie cinemas than cemeteries due to increased levels of energy from large groups of living people.  The book said that spirits like to “feed off” energies from people as it gives them more energy.

[angelite64]

I'm half way though the book Alien.  She makes a lot of sense.

[Alien88]

Glad you like it, the book had your name all over it when I read your first post.

[Lord Daemon]

Sadly though if we take Cats into asylums they usually don't let her out again

As for me... well I just take one for the team

Take Care,

HLD

[catseyes]

I'm really good at escaping!

[Whisper]

BTW welcome back HLD.  (I cant post in announcements) 

[Lord Daemon]

Thanks for the welcome back Whisper

[Christine]

I spoke to the person in charge of the campus this week. He said the tour is more an historic tour, not a ghost tour. Has anyone done it yet? Any feedback?