Five historic university buildings have been added to Scotland's "at risk" register.

The listed buildings on Edinburgh Napier's Craighouse campus once served as a lunatic asylum and were extensively refurbished in the mid-1990s but are now affected by dry rot.

They were sold to investors and developers for £10m last year but the group, known as the Craighouse Partnership, said the longer the buildings remain unused the more likely it is they will have to be demolished.

The future of the buildings is far from agreed – there have been more than 5,000 signatures on a petition protesting against redevelopment ideas.

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The buildings, including the original 1565 mansion, could be transformed into 116 homes, many of them townhouses and luxury apartments in the grounds.

The Scotsman reported last month that the Friends of Craighouse campaign which is spearheading opposition to the development stems from an "understandable enthusiasm for the natural beauty" of the grounds.

But William Gray Muir of the Partnerhip told the newspaper that the listed buildings at Craighouse would become ruins if new homes were not built in the grounds, because preserving the heritage would not be financially viable.

Mr Muir, who also sits on the board of the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, said: "Without development the whole place will go to ruin – and very quickly – or someone else will buy it and something far worse will be developed."

The Buildings At Risk Register for Scotland lists and monitors buildings that are under threat.

(NE)