Monday, March 27, 2017

The Scottish ghost village of Polphail

During the 1970's the UK government was looking for locations on the Scotland coast where it could construct sites to build oil platforms, based on forecasts for future demand. Polphail, on the west coast of the Cowal Peninsula, in Argyll & Bute was one of the locations chosen, as it provided a sheltered port where a a dry dock and a construction yard could be built. Land was purchased by the government and a village that could house up to 500 workers was built between 1975 and 1977. 

However, the village of Polphail was never inhabited. Structural design issues of the oil gravity platforms, cost implications and inflexibility in the sector at the time led to no orders being placed at the yard. Polphail was now a ghost village. In 2009 it gained some publicity as an artistic collective visited the empty streets of Polphail to create a graffiti art gallery with paintings of figures, faces, abstract designs and haunting images, before all structures are demolished.
















































~


No comments:

Post a Comment

Spam comments will not be posted. Thank you.