Asylum Rock timeline

Norse occupation period

AR-HIS-0004

Songs and poems describe the ancient island structures

The earliest surviving descriptions treat Asylum Rock's enormous stone structures as already ancient and record that Norse occupants of the surrounding islands kept their distance.

Late 15th century

MS-PR-15C

Restricted manuscript copy enters circulation

Nigel Sailor's later summary identifies the chapel volume as a late-15th-century copy of a far older text, though the Trust has not verified that provenance.

19th century

AR-HIS-0004

Surveyors examine Asylum Rock before hospital expansion

Archaeologists and architects report structures exceeding 200 metres and struggle to identify where shaped architecture ends and the island's natural stone begins.

Post-1918 expansion

AR-HIS-0004

Troy Malin develops the modular hospital and island railway

Malin expands the modest inherited facility into a reconfigurable hospital and replaces the old gondola lift with an automated monorail linking Gondola Island, Asylum Rock, and Pandora's Rock.

1924

ENG-WS-1

Ward-service apparatus plans recorded

The BOB Orderly blueprint group describes tray service, acoustic location, and linked operation for groups of six units.

Late 1920s

AR-HIS-0003

Hospital systems expand beyond conventional staffing

Troy Malin's hospital infrastructure appears to shift toward self-contained automated systems as patient intake rises faster than staff recruitment.

Early 1930s

AR-ENG-0006

Custodian systems enter the hospital record

Patient complaints, staff reports and maintenance material describe human-proportioned Custodian units operating before the 1936 closure.

28 April 1932

PR-LIB/32

Nigel Sailor catalogue mark appears

Recovered lower-chapel pages carry library and restriction marks tied to Sailor's handling of the restricted shelf material.

1934-1936

AR-HIS-0002

Foreign research movement through Asylum Rock

Polish transit files and Marsh omissions suggest unusual movement toward Pandora's Rock under the cover of geological research.

1958

AR-SHEP-0002

Shepherd encounters active BOB units beyond the wards

Her second field diary records ordinary BOB Orderlies redirecting her as a patient before forming a corridor towards an unidentified damaged machine.

Current excavation phase

AR-ENG-0005

First controlled excavation reaches the Hydrotherapy Reserve

Institute engineers have opened a narrow upper route into the reserve, confirming a raised walkway, a corroded pump gallery, and at least one installed Malin desalination vessel.

Current examination phase

AR-ENG-0006

Complete Custodian recovered from Gondola Island

A sealed crate beneath the Keeper's House yields the first substantially complete Custodian unit, now held upright and inactive under non-destructive examination.

1 August 2026

AR-RES-0001

Institute opens public research programme

The Institute invites independent researchers to submit evidence-led findings based on released material, beginning with the Shepherd corridor record.

2 August 2026

AR-HIS-0004

Institute publishes consolidated history of Asylum Rock

Researchers connect the island's ancient record, Malin inheritance, modular hospital, automated route, and mechanical care systems in one public account.