The scottish urbex roadtrip 2008, HARDCORE!!!!!

right i have a few more updates too but this one is by far the most important!! a few weeks back we went on a little roadtrip to the Glasgow area of Scotland, all i can say is WOW the stuff they have up there thats explorable is UNBE fucking LEIVABLE!!

we arrived up there just after tea time on the friday and took a look at winston barracks a garrison sized baracks that is NOW being demolished so there wasnt alot left but we looked non the less!!

anyhow, winston done it was off to law hospital, Recent BBC coverage of this one made us doubt that it would be dooable, but in TYPICAL scottish style it was WIDE open!! although the records that the BBC had moaned about were long gone ;)







Right law done then off to the third site on the list, Hartwood asylum a two tower stone built asylum building, it looked lovelly on google images!! but sadly it wasnt to be, this place has suffered a MASSIVE fire and is sadly completely gutted :( i could really see the no expense spared attitude this place was built with and it was a real shame it was burnt to a crisp, hey hum, onward and upward i s'pose!!

Hartwood done and it was FAST going dark so we decided to make for inverkip and find a place to bed down for the night, as it happens this was a layby at the roadside!! but that was a different story!!

the next morning we got up, had some breakfast and headed to the industrial goodness that is INVERKIP power station, WOW this place is HUGE!! and good to explore too, WELL worth the 600 mile round trip!! we were told stories of shit hot security, mega cameras, and other generall problems with entry, but TBH we found none ;)

once inside we were met with the real scale of the place and it took my breath away!!

Heavy engineering aside (god i love it so), the highlight of inverkip has to be its controll room, this place is MAD and just keeps giving, the temptation to start pressing buttons and flicking switches is overwhelming but once i learned to controll my urges i managed to take some pics of it!!



Anwhow all good thins must come to an and and Inverkip done, we decided upon st peters seminary in cardross as the FITH yes FITH site of the weekend!!

I liked this place well trashed but full of funky angles and stuff to look at, and its a shame its got into this state but there you go!! i suppose the weather helped with my love of this one too, if it had been raining i would have HATED this place and no amount of funky angles would have made up for it!!







Anyhow, that done it was knocking on for late afternoon we were VERY tired hungry and TBH i was urbexed up, Havoc and loz were feling the same so we decided to head for home, But there was one more site we all wanted to see, and as it was on the way home (ish) we had to do it!!


The Glasgow bottanical gardens underground station, VERY cool site and quite photogenic!!

At that we'd had enough, and 3 VERY tired and weary explorers left scotland to head for home, 6 sites including inverkip in 26 Hours, i think thats hardcore enough for anyone!!

B..

Lazy?? you betcha!!!!!!! mills and boats!!!

But the lack of blogpost doesnt nessecarilly mean i havent been doing anything!!

the first thing i have to tell you about is Huddersfield fine worsteds, a nice little mill that used to manufacture fine woolen cloth for expensive carnaby street tailors, i found this place FASCINATING!! visited with gibbo.....

it had a supermegawonky floor!!

I did manage to get more pics than this BUT my memory card in the camera went tits up, and i lost all but a few pics, to say i was pissed off is an understatement!!

Anyhow, moving on and a week later i found myself on salford docks exploring BOATS!!! visited these with Havoc and Peanuts!!

the first boat we looked at was the georgia d, just sat at the side of the ship canal, rusting away!!

and the second was the sandsend (i think!!)

all in all, an enjoyable couple of evenings work!!!

B..

Oldham athletic football club, Boundary park, Oldham, 10/06/08

Ok being a generally cautios explorer i had BAD karma about this all day, now fellow explorers know if it feels bad, then its generally going to end in gettin busted, but not on this occasion!! a mate had told me about the impending demolition of the lookers stand (new start mortgages stand) on boundary park a few weeks back, so i decided to put the place under obs.

we had a little reece on monday evening but sadly DIDNT have the time to explore it, SO Tuesday night was decided upon for a hit!!

Now, my mate had spent 2 weeks telling me how they have stepped up security at the site due to copper cable thefts, by the local pikies and knowing what the local police are like, any chance of getting a theiving pikey will have them out in force, i REALLY wasnt feeling it for this reason, but decided to press on, we approached the stand and found the previosly recced entry point as we left it, good i thought, "lets go look for signs of life through the gate near the rochdale road" i said, OK, said my mate BUT on the way to the rochdale road end, a stroke of luck, the pikies had been in AND LEFT A DOOR OPEN !!! well it would be rude not too!! so in we goes, carefuly at first an open door COULD be too easy..........

we proceede to the top of the stairs to be greeted by......................... nothing!! an empty football stadium, no sign of security, no sign of the pikies (thank fuck) no police no nothing!!

the ONLY sign of life was the automatic sprinkler system which gave a nice effect in some of the pics!!

so we proceeded to explore, we had decidied between us NOT to explore the rest of the ground, although we could have with NO problems, afterall it was WIDE open, but we'll stick to what we came to see!! the lookers stand!!

and its paddock!!

on exploring the inside we found a pie shop and some signage!! but the rest of the stand was firmly locked.

anyhow, we had seen enough, it was time to go, but not before a team shot taken from the car park!!!

a brill night, i enjoyed this, and it was good to stay above ground for a change!!!

B..

Processor drain, 04/06/08

Another week, another drain *sigh* !!!! LOL

after the usuall text message to thenewmendoza, we decided on doing processor, i liked the sound of finding machinery underground in a drain!! but nothing could prepare me for the STINK!! jeez this place hums, REALLY bad in places but we persevered and got the job done in the end!!

Anyhow, the "processors" are sewage oveflow surface scrapers to keep the solids out of the culvert/drain, and are automaticaly run when the sewers fill right up so you can imagine HOW unpleasant this place is, and we visited on a good day!!!! but its interesting non the less, a mix of brick pipe, RCP, and a box section RCP make this well worth the visit you just gotta dodge the jamrags!!

pics..........

as you can see a real good mix of modern old and downright crusty!! im not going to go into anymore details as im a lazy boy and have a severe dose of "icantbearseditis" LOL

Till next time

B..