Abandoned Tin Tabernacles, Houses & Huts

Interested in corrugated iron buildings, particularly those neglected and abandoned to the elements? Then you might be interested in my new book, Abandoned Tin Tabernacles, Houses & Huts.

Available in paperback or as an ebook, it contains over 100 full colour pages of images and information on abandoned corrugated iron buildings in Scotland, from unloved tin tabernacles to more humble huts and homes, plus a larger shooting lodge, berry pickers’ chalets and some of what remains of an old TB hospital in East Lothian. It is an urban explorer’s guide to what remains of the country’s corrugated iron heritage, those often quirky and colourful buildings erected at minimal cost to provide much needed accommodation, often in the more remote corners of the country.

Abandoned Tin Tabernacles, Houses & Huts is available from Amazon in paperback at £12.99 and, as an ebook, at £4.99. Sales help fund new content on this site. Any queries or comments, please drop me a line at jimcarron@gmail.com

Abandoned Tin Tabernacles, Houses & Huts is intended as the first in a series of largely pictorial guides covering Abandoned Places. The second will focus on Dundee.

Many thanks for your continued support! It is much appreciated.

The Mounth Roads – A Walkers’ Guide

By James Carron

The Mounth Roads is the collective name given to a network of ancient rights of way – long established tracks and trails that traverse the Mounth, a broad upland at the eastern end of the Grampian Mountains, in north-east Scotland.
Crossing mountains and hills and weaving through glens and over moorland, they were historically vital links for cattle drovers, shepherds, soldiers, traders, smugglers, tinkers, and thieves.
Most ultimately fell by the wayside in the 19th century, the old byways superseded by turnpike roads and the railways.
Now they are the preserve of walkers, backpackers, and mountain bikers.
This fully illustrated guide with colour photographs and maps describes walks along 11 of the Mounth Roads, from the more challenging high-level Monega Pass, Capel Mounth, Mounth Keen, Firmounth, Fungle and Tolmounth – better known as Jock’s Road – to the lower, more easterly Stockmounth, Builg Mounth, Cryne Corse, Elsick Mounth and Causey Mounth.

Available in paperback and as an ebook from Amazon – out now!

Walking the Tolmounth – Jock’s Road from Glen Doll to Braemar

The Tolmounth – better known as Jock’s Road – crosses a vast and largely featureless plateau on its course between Glen Doll and Braemar. Once a vital artery for sheep farmers and cattle drovers, it is now the preserve of walkers, offering access to a clutch of Munros, including Tolmount and Tom Buidhe, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn. Jock’s Road is perhaps the best known of the Mounth Roads, in part because of the key role it played in asserting the rights of the ordinary man (and woman) to walk through the mountains of Scotland. Read more…

Walks & Wild Swims Scotland

Wild swimming is, quite simply, swimming out of doors, in a loch, river, stream or the sea. It is an opportunity to enjoy the exhilaration of cold water immersion amid the beauty of nature and the grandeur of spectacular scenery. And the best way to reach the most beautiful and secluded spots for a cooling dip is, very often, on foot.
In Scotland opportunities for wild swimming and skinny dipping abound thanks to the nation’s numerous lochs and lochans, reservoirs, many miles of rivers and burns, and varied coastline with its plethora of fine beaches.
This full colour guide, illustrated throughout with photographs and maps, describes in detail over 30 great days out for both families and solo swimmers combining enjoyable country and hill walks with magical wild swimming spots and includes plenty of practical advice for those new to open water swimming.
Venture off the beaten track and discover hidden pools and tumbling waterfalls, secluded mountain lochans, remote lochs with wooded islands and historic castles, and restless rivers dotted with deep rocky gorges and languid pools.
Locations covered vary from the famous Fairy Pools on the isle of Skye and the popular Loch Lubnaig, in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, to remoter, less well known spots such as the Brerachan Falls and Loch Mharaich in Perthshire and Reekie Linn and Auchintaple Loch, in Angus, to lost treasures like Cauldron Linn, on the River Devon. The walks range from short lochside strolls to more challenging mountain ascents, all leading to sumptuous swimming pools….

Buy now in paperback or ebook format from Amazon.

The Shale Trail

Opened in the autumn of 2020, the Shale Trail is a 16-mile long route aimed at walkers and cyclists linking some of the best known bings in West Lothian.

Starting in West Calder, the trail heads out past the Five Sisters, following the Breich Water and then River Almond through Livingston before turning north to Broxburn. Here the route meets the Union Canal, picking up the towpath for the next leg, weaving around the bings of Albyn, Greendykes, Faucheldean and Niddry on its way to Winchburgh. Read more…

New Books

A trio of new Scottish books, all available in paperback and ebook format from Amazon…

Lighthouse Men & Women of the Moor is a social history exploring what life was like for the men and women who staffed the remote halts of Corrour, Rannoch Station and Gorton on the West Highland Railway Line. In keeping with the lighthouse men of the time, they lived lonely lives, segregated from society, but their roles were vital to the safe and efficient running of the railway. Conditions were both harsh and primitive, particularly during the early years. But, when the time came to leave, the last remaining signalmen and women and stationmasters refused to go, such was their loyalty to the line and to the moor. It was a way of life that intrigued and often mystified passengers as they traversed this bleak back country.

Portavadie and the Ghost Village of Pollphail is a revised and updated version of my book The Lost Village of Pollphail and tells the story of the abandoned oil platform yard at Portavadie, on Loch Fyne, and the village built to house its workers. Conceived during the heady early days of North Sea oil and gas, the government-funded project failed spectacularly, the nationalised yard secured no orders for the vast concrete platforms it was carved out to build, and the controversial village was never occupied, lying empty for over 40 years. Illustrated with images of the village from the 1970s through to its eventual demolition.

Lavishly illustrated in full colour, Botanical Rambles and Scrambles along the Angus Coast is a comprehensive guide to the flora of the Angus coastline, from the grasslands of the military training ground at Barry Buddon, in the south, through the dramatic red sandstone cliffs of Arbroath and Auchmithie, with their spectacular geological landmarks, and Lunan Bay to the estuary of the River North, the county’s northern boundary.

Blacklaw, Sidlaw Hills

Lying to the south of the main ridge, Blacklaw is one of the lower hills in the Sidlaws but its prominent wee summit still surprises with some excellent views of both its higher neighbours to the north and the west and the Firth of Tay, to the south.

Thanks to its close proximity to the resort at Piperdam, it is a fairly popular outing for residents of the holiday lodges there and a clear, well-walked trail leads to the top, marked by a fine cairn, trig point and memorial bench. Read more…

Balruddery Den and the Check Bar Road, Angus

Balruddery Den, near the Angus hamlet of Fowlis, is one of those enticingly secret wooded glades that appears inaccessible at first but, with careful exploration, happily reveals itself in all its hidden glory. Ghostly trails suggest that in days gone by it was eagerly devoured by well to do walkers while the remains of firepits and makeshift wooden shelters indicate it has not been completely forgotten. Read more…

Return to Blair House opencast site

A return to the former Blair House opencast coal mine site near Oakley, Fife, with a more detailed walk around the reclaimed land and a visit to Blair Tower. Read more…

Angus Coastal Trail – Updated

My guide to walking the Angus coast, first published in 2013, has had a long overdue update. Originally detailing the 68km route from Broughty Castle to the mouth of the River North Esk, the county’s northern boundary, it now describes an 82km hike starting further inland, in Invergowrie, on the old Angus county boundary, and ending at the River North Esk.

I re-walked the trail in June 2021 and, in addition to revising and updating the text to take account of changes on the ground, there is new mapping and new photographs. The paperback book is printed in black and white to keep the cover cost down but an accompanying ebook is available in full colour.

Available in paperback from Amazon at £6.95 or ebook at £3.99.

Carlingheugh Bay, between Arbroath and Auchmithie