Is it the end for Polphail Village? With it being recently reported on the BBC that the popular abandoned site is now up for sale the answer to the question still remains to be answered. Any prospective buyer of the location, you would expect, will be looking at it as a potential investment with it’s close proximity to the Portavadie Marina, a popular attraction for yachting enthusiasts. So looking from the outside it would seem that the village would more than likely be torn down and a new hotel or housing be built in it’s place. This seems relatively straight forward and simple though, so why hasn’t anyone done this before? There’s one outstanding problem that has plagued the current owners from doing just that … bats.

Bats have set up home with several roosts here giving a headache and much frustration to the current owner and to the delight of explorers and graffiti artists wanting to see the place or preserve it as a modern ruin. A loft was set up in the hope that the bats would move over to set up home in a heated building just near to the village but it seems that this has had little effect. We contacted CKD Galbraith who are in charge of selling the site about the buildings, they said:

“Part of the site had a consent for 5 detached houses and the buildings had consent for demolition and the erection of a new settlement. Both of these consents have expired. There are no current consents for the site, however the planners have indicated that residential use would be acceptable. There are also bats on site, which are a protected species, and future planning applications would require a bat survey to be carried out.”

So the current headache remains even for future property developers but is that the end of the story? We were recently told by CKD Galbraith:

“Due to the interest in Pollphail Village, we have now received our client’s instructions to draw the marketing of the above property to a close. Accordingly, we are seeking written proposals from interested parties by 12 noon on Wednesday 25th July 2012.”

This suggests that they have had a lot of interest or potentially even a firm offer for the land, it may well mean that a potential buyer has had previous dealings with bats or has already got the appropriate licencing to attempt a renovation or demolition of the property. This would still require a bat survey to be done to assess whether development is feasible and whether the alternative shelter is enough for them to stay.

So will we see Polphail demolished any time soon? I seriously doubt any development will take place here for at least several months but if you haven’t visited yet I’d suggest you make a visit soon so that you can see the famous ghost village of Portavadie.