In 2011 we travelled on the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney. Times Beach was evacuated in 1983 because of dioxin contamination resulting from contaminated fuel being used to deal with a dust problem in the streets and to deter birds from crops since the 1970s. In the late 1960s Interstate 44 arrived and bypassed this and many other communities. Resorts arrived and working-class resort called Times Beach opened nearby in 1925. The Meramec Bridge in Missouri carried Route 66 after its completion in 1932. Route 66 passes several towns left behind when the interstates were built. On our trips overseas we have also found derelict and abandoned places. It now has a military and a radar base and a few National Trust for Scotland employees are there for part of each year as well as a flock of Soay Sheep. Having been inhabited for 4,000 years, it was abandoned in 1930. In 2018 we visited the St Kilda archipelago which lies 40 miles beyond the Outer Hebrides. They tried to settle nearby and were given £100 by the Duchess of Sutherland. They were forced to leave as the population was reducing in numbers (some having emigrated to North America or Australia) and getting older making it hard navigate the 90 steps up the steep cliff from the harbour to the homes. From the harbour, Eilean nan Ron – the Isle of the Seals is visible, with ruined houses on it.īetween 18, this was home to several hardy families. We stayed for a week in a cottage near Skerray Harbour. Unfortunately, they did not know how to fish or possess any boats.
When we visited Sutherland in 2015, I learnt that people farming in the glens were removed to the coast near Bettyhill. Growing up in Scotland, the Highland Clearances which took place mostly in the 18 th and 29 th centuries are never very far away and the ruins of old crofts are found in many places. On our journey around the British coast we visited Rattray in Aberdeenshire which was abandoned in the 18 th century when shifting sands blocked the harbour and covered the buildings. As I write, one home has fallen from the cliffs and others are threatened. In late May this year, people in homes on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent were evacuated. In East Anglia and other parts of the East coast, erosion is also a major problem due to rising sea levels.
Some were requisitioned by the military for use at the outset of World War 2 and practices for the D-Day landings. The worst affected areas were Norfolk and Suffolk where the plague-infested ships landed. A recent article in The Guardian by David Bramwell described the ghost towns in Britain as mostly having been abandoned after the Black Death in the 14 th century. I wonder about the story behind them and the people who lived or worked there. Abandoned places have always intrigued me.
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