Tarlair Swimming Pool is a disused

lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

at the base of a sea cliff just outside Macduff in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. This outdoor swimming complex was built in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style with a main building backing onto the cliffs and changing rooms to its left hand side. It is considered by

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

to be the best example of only three surviving outdoor seaside pools in Scotland, the others being at

Stonehaven Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...

and

Gourock Gourock ( ; gd, Guireag ) is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is as a r ...

. 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 Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement), ...

, rock falls and

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...

being the main causes.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

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 Stuart MacBride is a Scottish writer, most famous for his crime thrillers set in the "Granite City" of Aberdeen and featuring Detective Sergeant Logan McRae. Biography Stuart MacBride was born 27 February 1969 in Dumbarton, Scotland and raised ...

novel, ''" The Missing and the Dead"'', when a child's body is found in the pool.

History

The pool was commissioned by Macduff Burgh Council in 1929, with the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

being John C Miller, the Burgh Surveyor of MacDuff. The

contractor A contractor is a person or company that performs work on a contract basis. The term may refer to: Business roles * Defense contractor, arms industry which provides weapons or military goods to a government * General contractor, an individual o ...

for the project was Robert Morrison & Son of Macduff. The pool operated from 1931 until the mid-1990s. Between 1985 and 1994 Tarlair Swimming Pool was used as an open air concert arena where bands like Jethro Tull,

Runrig Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The line-up during most of the 1980s and 1990s (the band's most succe ...

and

Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish soft rock band formed in 1982. They scored a number of hits in the UK charts and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 cover of The Troggs' 1960s hit "Love Is All Around", which w ...

played. Since 2007 it has been protected as a

category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being *Categories (Aristotle), ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) ...

. In 2010, a proposal was put forward for redevelopment of the complex as a

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

hatchery. The plans were never realised. A "Friends of Tarlair" group was formed in 2012. There were proposals from Aberdeenshire Council to fill some or all of the pool, but this was thrown out in January 2013. Later that year, councillors agreed to contribute £300,000 towards refurbishing the pool. In 2020 the Friends of Tarlair organisation had a formal application to

Aberdeenshire Council Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includ ...

to have ownership of Tarlair Swimming Pool transferred over to the group accepted.

References

External links

The Mecca of the Moray Firth: How the tide turned on Tarlair Outdoor Swimming Pool
article in The Press and Journal
TARLAIR SWIMMING POOL INCLUDING BOATING POOL, PADDLING POOL, TEA PAVILION, CHANGING ROOMS, KIOSKS AND FENCE (LB50788)
Historic Scotland entry
Friends of Tarlair

archived web page
Tarlair, Macduff, Scotland
a photo from the 1890s
POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE – 13 JUNE 2013 TARLAIR SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX MACDUFF

Tarlair Swimming Pool Complex - Business Plan - Revision 10th October 2019
{{Coord, 57.671, -2.470, display=title, type:landmark_region:GB Swimming venues in Scotland Art Deco architecture in Scotland Buildings and structures in Aberdeenshire Sports venues in Aberdeenshire Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Macduff, Aberdeenshire