Veteran nurse claims wards were ‘haunted’

Heather Kennedy worked at Strathmartine for 34 years, starting at the age of 16 in 1976 as a governess, helping children with subjects like writing and music, and ending her career as a staff nurse.

“It breaks my heart to see it in this terrible, neglected state,” she laments, glancing in the direction of the vandalised, boarded-up wards.

“I remember how these were living, breathing wards with patients – I can see them in my mind’s eye.

“I’d be walking around speaking to them, assisting their needs, and now these wards are absolutely trashed. It’s so sad.”

When Heather first started at Strathmartine, there were around 600 patients including babies, children and elderly people. Some wards had up to 50 people in them at a time.

“It was a lot and we were short staffed but we just got on with it,” she says.

Working at Strathmartine runs in Heather’s family with her father, several cousins, her brother and two sons employed there over the decades.

Heather claims to have witnessed paranormal activity on numerous occasions while on duty.

“One of the main things that attracts people up here is that it’s haunted,” she says.

“I’ve had a few strange experiences which sent a chill down my spine.

“In ward 15, I was washing patients’ hands and faces with a charge nurse when she screamed.

“She said, ‘Heather, I’ve just walked through a figure sitting cross-legged on the floor and it lifted its head to look at me’. She was shaking.

“In ward five, a charge nurse was sitting with a student nurse when the figure of an older lady walked through the wall.

“That ward had a little room upstairs and I always had this terrible feeling something was pressing down or looking at me.

“On ward 11, when I was with a nursing assistant, we heard keys jangling and assumed it was a manager. We looked all round the ward but no-one was there.

“A lot of people died at Strathmartine.”