The Thread of Abandoned Places

[Kerrybuchanan]

These are ruined cottages just outside our gate. The first one is the toilet....

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

This is the ancient laneway that runs between two of our fields. Part of it has been robbed out for stone at some time before the mid eighteen hundreds and it's very overgrown at the moment, but it continues on further down the hill to the edge of our land.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

And last but not least, this is the abandoned cottage that looks like the Marie Celeste.

It isn't on our land, but belongs to a neighbour.

Edit: Fraser tells me I have to confess. I didn't take these photos - he did with my phone! It was raining at the time....

 

[Ray McCarthy]

@Kerrybuchanan
How do you find time to write with a family, business and all that lovely countryside to walk / ride in?

 

[Perpetual Man]

I see all these pictures and I get the urge to go exploring!

 

[BAYLOR]

And last but not least, this is the abandoned cottage that looks like the Marie Celeste.

It isn't on our land, but belongs to a neighbour.

View attachment 23554 View attachment 23555 View attachment 23556 View attachment 23557 View attachment 23558 View attachment 23559 View attachment 23560 View attachment 23561 View attachment 23562 View attachment 23563

It looks like a real fixer upper , why was it abandoned? Why does no one live there?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

It looks like a real fixer upper , why was it abandoned? Why does no one live there?

It belongs to a slightly eccentric English lady who used to use it as a holiday cottage for herself and her family until the early 90s, then she just stopped using it. It's quite eerie in there, because it's down a long overgrown track with nothing anywhere near it. Funnily enough, our dogs are afraid of going inside it and if dragged in they will escape as fast as possible. The collie has her hackles up the whole time and growls. Humans get the same vibe from it, but as far as I know there are no secret tragedies there.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

How do you find time to write with a family, business and all that lovely countryside to walk / ride in?

I'm not too steady on my feet with arthritis so I don't walk that much. Writing is a form of escape.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

why was it abandoned? Why does no one live there?

Quite likely there is no shortage of more feasible properties, often with better access to shops, electricity, broadband, phone signals and equally good or better scenery.

Funnily enough, our dogs are afraid of going inside it and if dragged in they will escape as fast as possible. The collie has her hackles up the whole time and growls. Humans get the same vibe from it,

It's likely got no damp proof course, no cavity wall, rotten with damp (likely source of unsettling vibes and bad smells for a poor dog).

Such properties often cost more to renovate than building from scratch (I've had surveyors reports on better). It's likely too small for a family. It may be on land owned by a farmer who would rather have more land and not lose more to an access road.
It's a long while since I was concerned with Northern property values, but here a good modern house in the countryside 6km outside the city is half the price of a smaller site in the city! A wreck is essentially worth little more than the price of the land, and that would depend on services and access and planning permission. Renovation usually doesn't require planning permission, but adding a story even dormer type does as does increasing the size more than by a conservatory.

Properties like that are common here (Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary). But to get them you'd have to buyout a full sized farm as they are usually on some odd corner. There is one even at the bottom of the road beside me. Plenty more in a 15 minutes radius. As well as the Raths, ruined castles, ruined churches and disused lime kilns. I may venture out and take a few photos if I can tear myself away from writing and it stops raining!

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

It's likely too small for a family

It's only two tiny rooms, no damp-proofing, no services and poor access. The owner lives in a lovely house a few fields away from it. I think she might get round to doing something with it one day, but in the meantime it's deteriorating rapidly.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's only two tiny rooms, no damp-proofing, no services and poor access

No shortage of ex-dwellings like that in Ireland. Some get used as agricultural stores. Others just gradually fall down.

 

[J Riff]

I would attach a pic of my room but it may prove disturbing.
There are deserted pilings near here, sticking out into the lake, and they once were part of a casino built by Al Capone. It's pretty creepy there, only toads on the beach and mutated fish in the water.

 

[BAYLOR]

It's only two tiny rooms, no damp-proofing, no services and poor access. The owner lives in a lovely house a few fields away from it. I think she might get round to doing something with it one day, but in the meantime it's deteriorating rapidly.

It's a pity, it seem like a nice little out of the way place. A good spot for a vacation.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Almost everywhere here is good for a vacation and there are loads of out of the way places. Outside of Northern Ireland, Ireland doesn't have zip codes yet (post codes) and the proposed system
a) Won't work properly
b) too expensive
c) Will be ignored

This unofficial free system does work, but it's not official
http://www.openpostcode.org/

You can't get much more out of the way than places with no proper addresses. In the City here, some streets have each block or row of houses built at the same time numbered from 1, so O'Connell Avenue or some other street might have 5 houses all #3, 6 houses #1 and six #2 and 4 houses each with #4, #5 #6.

Though someone addressed a letter with just the county name, my name and Ireland from the Middle East and it was delivered.

 

[Perpetual Man]

A bit of a longer video but this is from Willard Asylum in New York

 

[Perpetual Man]

And here is a post, originally put up in another thread by Venusian Broon:

Abandoned Communities

 

[Perpetual Man]

San Zhi in Taiwan

 

[Perpetual Man]

Today's offering a slightly longer than I'd like video of Six Flags Jazzland in New Orleans. It's really kind of sad to see something that was built for the entertainment of others slowly wasting away.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Today we have Bannerman Castle Pollepel Island, New York

 

[chopper]

An abandoned school in Sheffield, decorated by the street artist Phlegm. For me it brought new life to the phrase "Urban Fantasy", & that's why I've used it as background for the SFSF Social posters.