# Seatown. Abandoned "Village", Aberdeenshire.



## Seahorse (May 22, 2009)

With a couple of hours to spare after my visit to the nearby coastguard cottages at Rattray Head, I thought I'd pop on over to visit Seatown. I was last here when I were just a nipper, so probably 30 odd years ago. There was still the remains of roofs back then, but otherwise the only thing that has changed is the addition of a couple of caravans. More about those later. 

There was a harbour of sorts in this area, until a huge storm in the 1720's closed it off by blocking it in with sand. A ship laden with slate was trapped in the harbour, never to sail the open sea again. And so was born the Loch of Strathbeg.

That was the end of fishing here, until Rattray Estates built a new village, Seatown of Rattray, in 1795. By 1803, there were a few fishermen and sundry other locals. It gained a reputation as being a harsh and unforgiving place to scrape a living, and unofficially became known as Botany, so named after the recently founded penal colony in Botany Bay, in Australia.

After 100 or so years, folks had had enough, and so it was abandoned in the early to mid 1900's. Only to have someone move back in the late 20th century. 

The village, seen from Rattray coastguard cottages...






A bit closer...





Water would have been hard to come by. But needs must...





First cottage. And rather more recent additions. I'll get to those in a moment..





These things get everywhere...





What a lot of bottles. WHisky bottles, mostly...





Good grief!!!





I'm beginning to sense a pattern here. And the fumes have knocked me over... 





Steptoe and Son, eat yer heart out...





"Modern" accommodations...





It's not the dogs I'm worried about. Botulism, bubonic plague, and any other number of nasty infections spring readily to mind...





Inside the "workshop"...





You need to bear in mind, the main source of power appears to have been an almost endless supply of car batteries...





And possibly a wind turbine at some point...





Unbelievably sad that a human being used to live here...





Ah, right. The dogs to beware of. I just got really depressed with this. He had pics of his canine buddies all around the walls. 





Goes some way to date the occupation...





But the milk carton seems to indicate he lived here for at least 10 years...





Right, that just got too depressing. And smelly. On we go. On to the other cottages...















How clever! A pillbox built into the ruin. 




















As an aside, I took a wee wander down to the beach, passing this on the way...





I don't normally move stuff. But in this case, I was curious to see what the name was on the bottle. John Campbell. Now I need to know what was in it. And from what era... 





And finally. Does anybody have any idea what the heck this might be?????


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## tigger2 (May 22, 2009)

Last photo looks like a fairly standard steel boat fender

Another very interesting report. Thanks for posting.


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## Seahorse (May 22, 2009)

tigger2 said:


> Last photo looks like a fairly standard steel boat fender
> 
> Another very interesting report. Thanks for posting.




Ah, yes. Steel boat fender. 

I'll just have to take your word for that. It's good to know there are knowledgable peeps about to help us mental midgets.


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## Sabtr (May 22, 2009)

What a curious place! Old man with dogs, drinks himself silly whilst looking for water to make cement....

It is a sad place though and I bet it has a great story to tell. Do you know who it belongs to?

A great write up and a fascinating place. Thanks for sharing.


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## Landie_Man (May 22, 2009)

Nice! Did it smell of poo? Did the carton have any milk in it?


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## purplepantman (May 22, 2009)

Wow! Great read and great pics.

Your heart must have been thumping wandering about there. Looks well creepy!

Mad to think anyone could live like that.


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## the_historian (May 22, 2009)

Christ, how the other half live. 
Great pics and report though.


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## Seahorse (May 22, 2009)

Landie_Man said:


> Nice! Did it smell of poo? Did the carton have any milk in it?



No, not poo. I haven't shown the pics of the floor. Well, I'm sure there was a floor under the pile of shite, mostly consisting of empty dog food tins. Which is where the smell came from. I didn't dare touch the milk carton.


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## crickleymal (May 22, 2009)

Landie_Man said:


> Nice! Did it smell of poo?




Truly, your mind works in mysterious ways. Why on earth do you want to know?


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## Landie_Man (May 23, 2009)

crickleymal said:


> Truly, your mind works in mysterious ways. Why on earth do you want to know?



Just trying to build a mental image of how this man may have lived


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## Seahorse (May 23, 2009)

In a continual alcoholic haze, I suspect LM. Poor chap. 

Other items in there seem to indicate that he was actively looking for work though. And judging by some of the stuff lying around, and the fact that it appears to have come from Thainstone auctions, I suspect he may have been trying to make ends meet in other ways. Bits of tellys, radios and computers along with some of the companies he had jotted down as potential makes me think he must have been quite a clever chap.

What really annoyed me was the letter saying that deductions were going to be made from his benefits for arrears of council tax. Feckin council tax!!!!! He lived in a hovel with no sanitation, running water or electricity, no refuse collection, and I suspect if he needed the emergency services, he'd have been screwed!!!

Barstewards. 

For obvious reasons, I've not posted any pics that could identify him. Even if he's not still alive, he may have relatives, and the last thing I want to do is upset them if he has.


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## Black Shuck (May 23, 2009)

Seahorse said:


> In a continual alcoholic haze, I suspect LM. Poor chap.
> 
> Other items in there seem to indicate that he was actively looking for work though. And judging by some of the stuff lying around, and the fact that it appears to have come from Thainstone auctions, I suspect he may have been trying to make ends meet in other ways. Bits of tellys, radios and computers along with some of the companies he had jotted down as potential makes me think he must have been quite a clever chap.
> 
> ...



Shitty old Caravan, but I hav seen quite a lot just the same as that down here Seahorse. Love the Pillbox built into the cottage though. Great shots mate.


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## E30Elaine (May 23, 2009)

Interesting bit of history there about Rattary Head, you learn something new every day  the caravan reminds me of when my friend bought a house in Aberdeenshire in the same state - the previous owners idea was obviously to renovate the place to live in - then the plan must have gone a bit squew wiff, they sold the slates from the steading, to try and gain money to renovate the house and it went downhill from there, selling other bits and pieces till they had to sell the whole lot for a song - the mail and bills told a sad story. My mate ended up with a lovely traditonal croft house, the bottom half of a steading, caravans and half a house full of shyte. Fantastic family home now but it was sad to see the evidence of somebody desperately trying to hold it together.


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## smileysal (May 23, 2009)

What a great place, I lvoe old stone cottages, whatever condition they're in. They'd make lovely little holiday cottages for someone if they had the money to rebuild them all. Excellent find, I do like these.

 Sal


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## Seahorse (May 24, 2009)

I did wonder about holiday cottages Sal, as the old lighthouse keepers cottages nearby have been turned into B&B accommodation. Right on the sand dunes, lovely and secluded, yet close enough to civilisation for your material needs. Bliss. 

Until the winter that is.


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## Landie_Man (May 24, 2009)

Seahorse said:


> I did wonder about holiday cottages Sal, as the old lighthouse keepers cottages nearby have been turned into B&B accommodation. Right on the sand dunes, lovely and secluded, yet close enough to civilisation for your material needs. Bliss.
> 
> Until the winter that is.



Nah ONE cottage, so theres no one else around! 

Oh and whatever happened to living INSIDE the lighthouse?


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## Seahorse (May 24, 2009)

Landie_Man said:


> Oh and whatever happened to living INSIDE the lighthouse?



Errmmm.... a boat might be handy. 






And here's the old cottages. Give me a shout if you want the phone number to book a stay.


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## swedish (May 31, 2009)

again a lovely find...an think i my couriousity would have gotten the better of me with the bottle aswell.


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## Vintage (May 31, 2009)

it looks class...

We all know what happened to Tyrol then... (Battlestar galactica fans will know what i'm on about)


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