Philippa Elliott

Portavadie, once a small fishing village and holiday destination for folk from Glasgow and Edinburgh, became victim to the oil boom in the 1970s. Tony Benn as energy Minister pushed forward the construction of Polphail village to house 500 workers constructing North Sea Oil platforms. Unfortunately after 6 years constructing the workers’ village was abandoned before the site went into production. The village now stands partly furnished but overgrown with plants and overrun by sheep. The campus itself could be described as a modernist take on Scottish vernacular style architecture with its rendered white concrete structures.