After the Bonfires I went poking around yesterday to see the what was left. I stumbled across a strange find, the subject of this post. Behind locked gates, (easily scaled), I found the above - a small heap of rubbish, still smouldering. A horrible toxic smell was present.
The photo above is a reverse shot, (you can see the easily scaled gates behind), the odd, rust coloured looping fibres are burnt-out tires.
I walked away from the toxic pile - down the hill you see above. And came across a strange site. A modern, well built and well maintained phantom mini-town. I say town. But actually there were no buildings there. Just neat and tidy roads, street lamps, power boxes...but no homes.
Looking at the weathering on the various fixtures it was clear that, while neatly maintained, these objects had been there for several years.
What's a pile of stones doing there?
At one end of the phantom area is another series of gates, seen above, of the same type as the ones scaled at the other end.
Here's a roundabout to nowhere.
More shots of the roundabout.
After a while I got a strange prickly sensation at the back of my neck.
Like I was being watched.
I was some distance from the gate I originally scaled so walked up the hill seen above till I was able to leave via another fence.
UPDATE, July 17th, 2007: Special thanks to LTA Listener 'Twomey' who sent me this via the miracle of email:
"It's Springvale, and is the skeleton of a campus they were going to build as part of of the peace dividend, but they screwed it up. You're right about the town feel, because it was meant to be a "village", Springvale Education Village. Bascially the University of Ulster was going to have a sort of satellite campus there, and it was going to bridge the sectarian divide, being local to both Orange & Green working class kids. It fell apart in the last couple of years, and all that's left is the eerie ghost-town roads that you walked through."
'Twomey' also sent some links - check it out, Clinton and Blair dedicated the site!
Where the hell is that? I want to go and feel eerie for myself!
Posted by: the ronster | July 16, 2007 at 04:57 AM
Ok I've found it on Google Maps - but, who knows when the photos were taken, the satellite shows the area covered with buildings - looks like manufacturing - with cars parked in the spots and all. Now all gone. Replaced with 'empty town'.
Click here for Googlemap (the 'white buildings' dead centre)
Posted by: Jett Loe | July 16, 2007 at 06:11 AM
Weird. I shall have a look next time I'm feeling adventurous.
Posted by: the ronster | July 16, 2007 at 07:21 AM
The weirdest thing is, as you zoom out from that Google Maps link, those white buildings appear to be the only thing in Belfast visible from space...
Posted by: Brabazon | July 16, 2007 at 05:48 PM
There is another one at the bottom of Hampton Park,I believe was gonna be a bus lane through Belvoir Forest but never happened.
Posted by: Mr Bounce | July 19, 2007 at 07:40 PM