Polphail, Portavadie

There is a piece in today's Sunday Herald about Portavadie Marina and the remarkable job that has been done to create a five star tourist facility and destination on the shores of Loch Fyne. I have myself blipped the marina several times.

At the heart of the development is the old basin which was designed to build oil rigs , but which was never used for that purpose. Now, open to the loch, it provides secure and sheltered mooring for an increasing number of boats.

The accommodation for the planned workforce at the Portavadie Oil Rig Yard was about half a mile away in what was optimistacally called "Polphail Village". But it too never saw use and today it is a neglected and ruinous eyesore, fenced off and overgrown.

I understand it has recently been sold on (again) but this time the owners are the family who have created the marina. That means that something is, at last, likely to happen to finally transform it into an asset for the area.