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.
James Carron 