Crag Hotel is an abandoned hotel and former international school located on Penang Hill, Pilau Pinang, Malayisa. The building was featured in Academy award-winning films and a BBC series.
The original site was first occupied by a Mr Bright in 1845, and was most likely a private residence. By the early 1850s, it was used as a sanatorium. In 1896, Captain John W Kerr, an employee of the East India Company took over the lease and made numerous improvements to the site and was a popular retreat for Europeans who lived in Georgetown and Penang Island as a way to escape the intense heat and humidity of the lower coastal areas.
The Crag Hotel continued operation until World War 2. When the Japanese occupied Penang they seconded the building. After the war, the building was disused for a decade before being leased to the Uplands School (now called the Penang International School). The school opened in 1955, and was a primary boarding school with students and teachers living on its grounds.
The Uplands School occupied Crag Hotel and Grace Dieu not too far away, until 1977 and and the former hotel site was left abandoned again. There were efforts to use buildings as a homestay until 1999, but plans didn’t work well and Crag Hotel has been closed since then.
In 2011 there were plans to build a luxury hotel with 20 villas, spa facilities, restaurants, poolsides and lounge bars on the site of the former Crag Hotel. But there was no progress since then.
Another development plan was made in 2016 to transform area near Penang Hill, including Crag Hotel, into therapeutic and luxury spa centre with efforts to make place a popular destination among tourists. However, the Crag Hotel is still long abandoned and definitely not a popular tourist spot. Also there are some whispers amongst the locals that this abandoned hotel in Penang may be haunted.
Directions to Crag Hotel
An easier way to reach abandoned Crag Hotel is to take the funicular up Penang Hill, then follow the road down. To see the hotel you can take a short walk from the top of Penang Hill on the road which leads down. It will take approximately 15 minutes. The hotel building is at the end of the first left junction on the way down.
