Visiting the decaying remains of the Tarlair outdoor swimming pool is a strange experience – both the setting and the art deco structure are stunning but the decayed condition of the place is quite simply shocking – especially when you consider that this is a Grade A Listed Historic Building.

The June 2007 edition of The Leopard magazine has an interesting article on-line on the phenomenon of outdoor pools in the North East by Eric Simpson : “Pools of teeth-chittering delight” which gives more history on Tarlair and other pools.

There has been a consultation on the future of the pool – with (I’m led to believe) £75,000 of public money on external consultants – and the results will be published later in the year. After ACSEF’s recent CitySquare “consultation” – which used up £300,000 of much needed public funds – I’m very sceptical of consultations these days.

According to the Banffshire Journal one of the potential future uses is as a lobster hatchery. I like many others wait with interest to see what becomes of the place, and I hope whatever it is saves the building, can serve the local community and help create some genuine local jobs.

P.S. I have put more images from Tarlair Pool on my flickr page .