The Dark Cell at Ruthin Gaol was a punishment cell. Here prisoners who had misbehaved inside the Gaol would have been placed in total darkness and total silence - sometimes for days.The only light they would have seen at any time would have been at the small hole in the door when a warder looked in.
Prisoners could - and did - go mad, having to face hours and days alone with only their thoughts in the darkness. The punishment was abandoned in the 1870s because of this.
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