Tarlair Swimming Pool

Tarlair Swimming Pool opened in 1931 at the base of a sea cliff just outside Macduff in Banffshire (now Aberdeenshire) in Scotland. This outdoor swimming complex was built in an Art Deco style with a main building backing onto the cliffs and changing rooms to its left hand side. It was commissioned by Macduff Burgh Council in 1929, with the architect being John C Miller, the Burgh Surveyor of MacDuff. The contractor for the project was Robert Morrison & Son of Macduff.[1] Since 2007 it has been protected as a category A listed building. It is considered by Historic Environment Scotland to be the best example of only three surviving outdoor seaside pools in Scotland, the others being at Stonehaven and Gourock.[2]

Picture of the pool in the 1960s

The design of the pool was a clever use of pumped sea water to fill the pools, and flooding of the main pool at high tide to flush out the old water. The main pool had a diving board at the deep end and a child's chute at the shallow end, though both are now missing. The second-largest pool was a boating pool with the two remaining pools being paddling pools.

The complex is now in some disrepair with a mixture of weathering, rock falls and vandalism being the main causes. In 2010, a proposal was put forward for redevelopment of the complex as a lobster hatchery.[3]

In 2012 a small group of local residents in the Macduff community created a "Save Tarlair" page on the social networking site Facebook, which drew the attention of over 7000 followers to the plight of pool complex. A community group "Friends of Tarlair " has since been formed and is working with Aberdeenshire Council to try to find a way forward for the site as a community facility.

It has been announced that £300,000 will be earmarked for the refurbishment of the pools.[4]

Channel 4 television made "Tarlair Outdoor Pool" the subject of the third episode of a series of six documentary films on "Britain's Abandoned Playgrounds". The site also features in the Stuart MacBride novel, "The Missing and the Dead", when a child's body is found in the pool.[5]


References
  1. http://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/BAR/detail.aspx?sctID=3421
  2. Historic Environment Scotland. "Tarlair Swimming Pool including Boating Pool, Paddling Pool, Tea Pavilion, Changing Rooms, Kiosks and Fence  (Category A) (LB50788)". Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  3. "Study into lobster hatchery plan at Tarlair pool site is completed". The Press and Journal. 15 November 2011.
  4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-22893008
  5. King, Joshua (21 January 2015). "Murder and mayhem in Banff | Press and Journal". Press and Journal. Retrieved 9 November 2018.

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