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
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
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.
The Secret Lake
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 Horses Tomb
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.
Balrossie destroyed by fire
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…
Very small grain mill
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.
Exploring Dunmore House
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.
The search for the lost mill
Old maps can be great resources for investigating the past. Now and then, we will discover an old building on such a map and visit the location to see if there is anything remaining.
This is one such example… We were browsing old maps provided by the National Library of Scotland and noticed an old mill located in an area of woodland. It looked like it would be an easy task to simply visit the site and determine if there were any physical remains of the structure. This proved to be false optimism.
Our first visit was in the summer of 2020. There were several possible routes to the mill site but none of them was passable. Old maps showed trails and paths all of which had long since been lost. We were also battling against vegetation, fences and stinging nettles. At each attempt, we ended up coming up against obstacles. The final idea was a more substantial pathway shown on the old maps. It was however blocked by hay bales. It would have been a simple task to climb over them, but then there is the risk of causing damage to the polythene packaging that the farmer has wrapped the bale in. Out of respect, we chose not to attempt to pass.
In 2021, we revisited the location, and this time, the hay bales had been removed, so we ventured into the woods. The path very quickly vanished, and it once again became a case of battling through the vegetation. We eventually managed to locate the mill. There are still substantial ruins on the site. We were even able to locate an Ordnance Survey Benchmark engraving on the side of the building. This corresponded with the one we had previously noticed on the map.
All in all, there was not a lot to see, but it was still very interesting to be able to witness a piece of history that had not only been lost to the woods but also lost in time.
Anti-Aircraft Battery
During WWII Anti-Aircraft Batteries were constructed all across the UK. They were designed and positioned to protect key areas that would have been potential targets for enemy bombers and/or fighter aircraft.
We paid a visit to one such location. The Larkfield Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery is located in Greenock, Scotland. This is a large AA battery consisting of 4 gun emplacements and 2 magazines. It also has a control building. There are various other auxiliary buildings at the location.
The local council have recently secured the site by barring up all doors and windows to prevent people from accessing the structures. This was done in an attempt to prevent anti-social behaviour that has become a problem at the location. The battery had become a local drinking den for local youngsters.
We are glad they used bars as opposed to steel shutters. At least with bars, you still have the ability to look inside the buildings.
