We stumbled upon this ruin when out looking for another location. We filmed the remains of the buildings, then did some research later. The ruins are all that remain of the former Heathfield Farm, located within the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.
There are many ruins like this to be found all across Scotland and it gives us some insight into the scale of farming in our historic past.
Hacos Tomb is a chambered burial site dating back as far as 3300 BC. Originally, the tomb consisted of three chambers, although only one remains intact today. The entire structure would have been covered by hundreds of tons of stone. This mound was known locally as “Margaret’s Law” before its removal in 1772 to expose the burial chamber.
During investigation work, human remains were unearthed within the main chambers. In 1772, five human skulls were discovered in both chambers.
A flint knife or scraper and at least one broken urn were also found within the tomb.
In this video, we take a short look around the current site.
The Haylie Brae Cemetery is a burial ground located in the town of Largs, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
The cemetery was opened in 1959 and is no longer available for new burials. It is believed that more than 12,000 burials have taken place within the cemetery.
The land is well maintained, and on our visit, the grass and foliage had been well cut, and the location looked to have been well looked after.
The cemetery contains a mix of headstones from older, very elaborate gravestones to more modern, simple stone designs. One stone, in particular, stands out as being very grand. This is the resting place of the former art collector Sir William Burrell.
His final resting place commands a high vantage point overlooking the cemetery. In our video, we take a walk around the cemetery and look at some of the more grand headstones we find along the way.
Garvochs Farm is a ruinous former farm located in Greenock, Scotland.
The farm is located on the banks of Loch Thom and dates back to the early 1800s. The building forms a square “U” shaped structure, with the main central section being the home. The two opposing sections would have been byres or cowsheds.
The farm would have operated on land to the rear and also directly in front in an area that is now taken over by the Loch Thom reservoir. The construction of Loch Thom would have certainly affected the operation of the farm by reducing the amount of usable land.
It is believed the farm was still operational until the late 1980s, at which point it became abandoned. Since its abandonment, the building has rapidly deteriorated into the ruin we see today.
Lathallan House is a ruinous former mansion house located in Scotland.
The building was constructed in 1826. The house and its estate were originally known as Lawrence Park. It later became known as Lathallan House.
The building is now in very poor condition. It is a little more than a roofless shell. The structure is listed within the “Buildings at Risk Register” as High Risk. This means there is a very real risk of the building being lost in the future.
Within this video, we have a look around some of the grounds. We also venture inside the ruin to see what remains of this once grand mansion.
We had heard of a body of water known by some locals as the “Secret Lake” in Inverclyde, Scotland. The lake is a man-made dam in the hills above Greenock. It was built at some point between the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is believed it provided a water supply to Ardgowan House within the Ardgowan estate in the village of Inverkip.
Today, the dam is no longer used for the supply of water. The Secret Lake is set in an incredible landscape. With a mixture of farmland and moors, it can be quite a challenge to get to it.
The name “Secret Lake” is believed to have been in use for several generations. Kids used to go to the area to play and have adventures. Only some knew the location of the secret lake, hence it was given that name…
The Horse’s Tomb is a building located in an area of woodland within the town of Wemyss Bay, Scotland. The tomb is believed to have been built by Lord Inverclyde, who owned the nearby Castle Wemyss. The tomb would have been within the grounds of the former castle.
It is believed that the tomb was built for his favourite horse and that this horse was interned within the tomb. Very little more is known about the tomb, and we do not have a date for its construction.
The tomb has been subject to vandalism, and the interior is badly graffitied. The building is in a very poor condition and is now perhaps even structurally unsafe. The roof is made of steel beams supporting concrete. In areas, the concrete has started to separate from the metalwork. Many of the dressing stones from the facade have fallen onto the ground, and the doorway arch-work has also deteriorated with the decorative stonework missing.
Without preservation work, this structure may not survive for much longer.
When we started our YouTube channel, the first location we filmed was Balrossie School in Kilmacolm, Scotland. Since then, we have visited the building on a number of occasions and seen a gradual decline in the condition of the building. The entire building had become unsafe and we had decided our most recent visit would be our last.
It was brought to our attention in early 2022 that the building had suffered a major fire. We decided to pay Balrossie one final visit to see what condition the building was in following the fire.
It is fair to say that Balrossie School has been destroyed by the fire. There are no floors remaining, and all that remains are the main structural walls and steelwork. On this visit, much of our filming was external. We did venture inside briefly, but the building was too dangerous to proceed any further.
Without a doubt, this once-great building will soon be demolished…
We were looking over some old Ordnance Survey maps when we spotted a small building labelled “Mill”. We took a drive out to the location to see if there was any evidence of the building.
We were pleasantly surprised to see the building was still there and it appears to be getting looked after by a local property owner. On location, we were able to see the watercourse that once powered the mill wheel, the mill lead and a small walled pond that would have been used for water storage. The main framework of the wheel was still there, mounted on its pivot.
One surprising discovery was a rather tall chimney adjacent to the main mill building. This may indicate that the mill had later been converted to run on steam power rather than water power.
This is certainly the smallest mill building we have ever seen, although it must have been very efficient and productive to have been worthy of the steam upgrade.
Dunmore House in Scotland was built between 1820 and 1825 and was a grand mansion. It was an ancestral home for generations before briefly becoming a girls’ school. The building was abandoned in the 1970s and has since become a ruin. It is now nothing more than a shell, but it is still an interesting location to explore, and the wine cellars are fascinating to see.
Even as a shell, Dunmore House is still an incredible location to visit and have a look around. The entire structure is roofless, and the floors have long since been lost. From ground level, you can explore much of the building, looking up to where floors, doors, windows and fireplaces now reside, having once been on the different levels within the building.
It is still possible to enter the wine cellars and see all the shelves that still retain their painted numbers. This would probably have been used to store the wine when the property was still a residence.
During the making of this video, we also got some impressive drone footage. Drone shots show the scale and magnitude of the structure. It also highlights just how much it has decayed over the years.