British ghosts of World War Two

itburnswhenipee

itburnswhenipee

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May 25, 2005
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Maunsell20Army20Sea20Forts22.jpg


These are the remains of one of Great Britian's seaborne anti-aircraft fortifications. There used to be an elaborate network of walkways and communication lines running between the towers, each of which had a specific job as gun tower, searchlight tower, control tower, etc. There are apparently two such ruins left. You can read about them here.

Reading this article reminded me of another, more detailed, account of a lone kyaker's exploration of Fort Carroll, which is visible from the bay side of the Francis Scott Key bridge in my beloved Baltimore. You can read it here, if you are so inclined.

Stuff like this really intrigues me. I love the idea of exploring long forgotten places. Another interesting site is Forgotten Ohio which Coqui may find interesting since many of the sites listed are in or around Columbus.

Has anyone else got links to good ruin exploration or urban exploration sites? I really don't care where the sites are. I just enjoy reading stuff like this.
 
When I was younger I had a crew of friends that would explore abandoned houses, buildings and such in hopes of seeing a ghost - as I got older and realized that ghosts flat out don't exist it turned into a passion for UE.

I love UE and have been doing it for years, I've pretty much exhausted all of MD and VA - this is my fav. site: http://www.uer.ca/
 
ibwip comes up with some :cool: threads.

I visited Fort Sumpter last year (thats about as remote as I get). It was pretty cool. I don't get much into off the beaten path stuff, mostly cause I don't research it. Seeing that kind of histry would be damn cool.
 
theacoustician said:
Whoa. This is a pretty cool idea. What got you into it?
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I'd seen Fort Carroll while crossing the Key Bridge numerous times, but never knew what it was till I found that kyaker's log. Likewise, I found the Forgotten Ohio site shortly after my exile when I was trying to learn something about the place I seem to live.

But even long ago I remember the thrill of finding old things. When I was a boy I explored the small patches of woods around my old neighborhood (those woods are all houses now, of course). I remember the absolutely magical feeling that came over me when I supmbled across some anonymous lean to. The hook? There was an old pay phone. It was, I learned later, a model of pay phone that pre-dated the 'fortress phone' introduced after the race riots of the 60's, but that wasn't important. I felt like Indiana Fucking Jones. Here was a thing, clearly a pay phone, but unlike any pay phone I'd seen in my short life. Similar are all my experiences finding decades old junked cars with forest grown all anround them. I distinctly recall some 40's looking sedan I found in a thin strip of woods between Harper's Farm Road and the Hobbit's Glen golf course which some young scamp had branded "Ol' Timer" in white out. Those woods are gone too, of course.

Good times, though. Good times.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
I explored a couple of Spanish forts around the Mobile Bay. Been in the parts where no one is supposed to go. Quite interesting but far from abandoned.

anyways, those pics remind me of the movie 'City of Lost Children'.
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Awesome movie. Same director as Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.
 
SpangeMonkee said:
I explored a couple of Spanish forts around the Mobile Bay. Been in the parts where no one is supposed to go. Quite interesting but far from abandoned.

anyways, those pics remind me of the movie 'City of Lost Children'.
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City of Lost Children is a fabulous movie.. I remember going to see that in the cinema, way back whenever the hell that movie was actually in the cinema.
 
I'm obsessed with urban exploration and spelunking in ancient or simply old places. Did it all throughout my childhood, breaking into sealed bunkers in Norway built by the nazis, old abandoned factories, etc. I'm just flat out obsessed with it. It's the bored and adventurous side of me.

Awesome links, thanks for pointing them out. I'll bookmark them along with the 60 others I've got. :cool:
 
Ancient and/or historic construction practices and trends are something that I'm really into and, consequenty, I find myself drawn into teh stories behind them.

Most amazing place I've ever been may sound cliche, but it's the Roman Forum.
 
http://www.urbanadventure.org/
http://www.uer.ca/
http://www.infiltration.org/
http://www.urbanexplorers.net/
http://homepage.mac.com/peint/zone-tour/index.htm
http://www.urban-exploration.com/
http://e.webring.com/hub?ring=draining
http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html
http://bxl2.free.fr/
http://www.urbex.org/
http://www.uecanada.ca/
http://forgottenmichigan.com/
http://www.urbanlens.com/
http://www.buffaloexploration.com/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kazil/
http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Plaza/9186/nues/
http://www.opacity.us/main.php
http://www.actionsquad.org/
http://www.angelfire.com/vt/vtsteamtunnels/
http://www.frozencrystal.com/
http://www.travelersdigest.com/urban_exploration.htm
http://www.explorationstation.co.uk/
http://www.urban-resources.net/
http://urbanmainframe.com/folders/urbex/
http://uef.hyposomnia.com/
http://www.lioddities.com/UE/
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/
http://www.ueny.org/
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/offkilter/
http://uel.minimanga.com/
http://www.the907.org/
http://www.urbanexploration.prv.pl/
 
Yeah, I remember when it first went online years ago. It was very different. And crashed a lot, because of the traffic spikes once it hit some of the forums online.

But I'm always stopping by to see what else is new. The photos kick ass. If I go to those types of sites too often though I start to get anxious and nervous and want to pack a bag and take off to find adventure somewhere.
 
Sarcasmo said:
Oh, and one place I REALLY want to go is Centralia, Pennsylvania. I've been fascinated by that place since I was 5 or so.

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm
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This place looks really cool.

edit: My favorite thing about my apartment is it's located in the historic district and it's right across the bayou from the historic museum. There are pictures of the area before it was settled and after the major hurricane that created Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands.
 
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that picture is very moving. i really respect pictures that immediately stir an emotion in me, of any kind. very eerie. need more eerie/moving pictures, definitely.
 
Bubbles said:
This place looks really cool.

edit: My favorite thing about my apartment is it's located in the historic district and it's right across the bayou from the historic museum. There are pictures of the area before it was settled and after the major hurricane that created Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands.
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Centralia is fascinating. The very ground beneath the town has been on fire for almost 50 years. And there's no way to put it out. It's just so bizarre I'm compelled to see it with my own eyes. I watched a show about it on Discovery a couple years back, and seeing the huge ruptures in the ground spewing smoke and gases, the massive cracks down the middle of the roads, and the thermal vents with sulfur crystals around them popping up through basement floors made me feel like I was in some surreal nightmare, like the world was coming to an end. It's like a disaster movie, only infinitely more bizarre.

Turns out China has the same problem. A massive coal mine there caught fire many years ago, and the coal veins have been burning and smoldering ever since with no hope of putting them out. It's best to just let it burn out over time, but when there's a town above it, and the fires burn for 50 years, it's just crazy.
 
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