Skulferatu #88 - Derelict Farmhouse, Upper Bardennoch, Moniaive, Dumfries and Galloway

 

Ah, what to do on the day they are burying a long serving monarch and you don’t really fancy being stuck in the house all day watching all that pomp and ceremony?  Well, taking a lead from a kids’ TV show I remember from the Seventies ‘Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead?’  I did just that.  I got up off my fat backside and went out for a walk up in the hills by the village of Moniaive.

 

Stopping off in Moniaive first of all, I wandered through the rather picturesque and very quiet village.  Everything was shut and no-one was out on the street, I assume because they were all staying in and watching the funeral.  Though, maybe they were all at home busy writing, composing and painting, as Moniaive is one of these places that despite its size has attracted many musicians, authors, and artists.  The artist James Paterson, one of the ‘Glasgow Boys’ lived here, as did the author of ‘Black Narcissus’, Rumer Godden, the comic book writer, Alan Grant, and the musician Alex Kapranos.

 

In the warm, afternoon sun I walked out of the village and up a track leading through some woods and then on to a steep, grassy, and bumpy path lined by two drystane dykes.  As I walked up the hill, I could see the sky around me darkening as the rain clouds came rolling in.

 

The rolling hills outside of Moniaive

 

I made it up to the rather atmospheric ruins of Upper Bardennoch Farm where I had a staring competition with a ram who after sizing me up for a bit, wandered off and kept a wary eye on me from a safe distance.  Then the rain came down.  It poured and poured and soaked right through the cheap and nasty ‘waterproof’ jacket I was wearing.  Five minutes later the rain was gone, the sun was out again, and I was drying off nicely. 

 

The path up to Upper Bardennoch Farm

 

The derelict remains of Upper Bardennoch Farmhouse

 

The derelict remains of Upper Bardennoch Farmhouse

 

View over Upper Bardennoch Farm

 

I had a wander around the ruins of the farm, which I suppose at some time in the not too distant past had been a home and a livelihood for someone but was now abandoned and falling down.  Parts of the farmhouse roof had caved in, and the doors and windows had been removed and replaced with iron bars to keep the curious out.  The remains of the outbuildings now served as nothing more than a place for sheep to shelter from the elements, with the ground in them a sludge of sheep poo and the walls a scraped fluff with tufts of wool.

 

Tree and sheep pen

 

Gap in the wall

 

View from Upper Bardennoch over Moniaive

 

Upper Bardennoch Farmhouse

 

I left a Skulferatu in one of the many cracks in the farmhouse walls and then I carried on with my walk to the top of Bardennoch Hill, before making my way back to Moniaive.

 

Skulferatu #88

 

Skulferatu #88 in a crack in the farmhouse walls

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #88

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.206379

Longitude -3.91858

 

what3words: records.puppy.pocketed

Skulferatu #69 - Wild West Morningside, Springvalley Gardens, Edinburgh

While wandering through the refined and upmarket streets of Morningside in Edinburgh, I decided to pay a visit to a place I’d come across once, a decade or so ago.  A place hidden away in a courtyard that is reached through a narrow lane under a rather non-descript block of flats in Springvalley Gardens. A place I assumed must have fallen to the developers wrecking ball, but surprise, surprise, it was still there.

 

Lane from Springvalley Gardens to the Wild West

 

Once in the courtyard you could easily think that you had walked into the remains of an old film set from some dodgy spaghetti western, or should that be haggis western?  But no, this mock western façade was actually built in the 1990s to advertise a store called The Great American Indoors.  The business specialised in Santa Fe style furniture.  Something for which there was obviously little demand in Edinburgh, given that it closed down years ago.

 

Ed Newbey’s Grain, Horses, Livery

 

The Cantina…also the fire exit for Morningside Library

 

The Wild West Jail House

 

Faded blacksmith sign on one of the doors

 

Outside light on one of the façades

 

Faded sign for the Pueblo Pine Company

 

Now mainly derelict, which the exception of a few workshops and garages, the place has taken on the dilapidated look of a ghost town. Well, sort of, if you ignore the cars parked around the courtyard, the blocks of flats towering over you and the roar of the traffic from nearby Morningside Road.

 

View down the Wild West to a block of flats

 

One of the Wild West buildings…looking rather derelict

 

A faded sign – Knock and Wait

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in a gap in the wooden posts on one of the façades. 

 

Skulferatu #69

 

Skulferatu #69 in a gap in the wooden posts

 

Skulferatu #69 in a gap in the wooden posts

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #69

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.92890

Longitude -3.210490