Ruins, Renders and a Respectably Small Expedition: Cothole by Gravel Bike

Photographing ruins.

360 Spherical: https://kuula.co/post/Lb0Kv
Cothole Farmstead Ruins: https://superspl.at/scene/21776c4b
Strone Farmstead Ruins: https://superspl.at/scene/3bbb290d

** The following was auto generated by ChatGPT from the GPX data - it selected and researched points-of-interest along the route - and the provided activity photos.

The mission was simple: photographing ruins. This is exactly the sort of brief that sounds admirably focused until a bicycle, a loch and several centuries of unresolved building history become involved. From Kinloch, I set off on a 13.8-kilometre gravel loop towards Cothole, with the practical ambition of collecting photographs and the quietly overengineered ambition of turning the best of them into a spherical view and 3D models.

The opening leg reached Loch of Clunie after about 1.2 kilometres. The route touched the lochside rather than the island in the water, so this was historical context, not an amphibious assault. Clunie Castle is a small late-medieval castle on an island in the loch. Its L-plan tower house dates to the 16th or 17th century and was altered again in the late 18th century. Historic Environment Scotland describes the island as reputed to be artificial. All very grand company for the beginning of a short gravel ride, even if the castle remained firmly off the itinerary.

From the loch, the track continued west and climbed into the rural ground around Cothole. The route was compact but not flat: the GPX recorded about 216 metres of raw ascent, with the high point a little above 225 metres. That was enough to make the expedition respectable without requiring oxygen, porters or a press conference.

At roughly 6.4 kilometres came the main objective. The national historic-environment record classifies Cothole as a farmstead, but does not assign it a period. That restraint is useful: the walls may invite theories, but the checked record does not supply a construction date or an abandonment date, so neither does this account. The first Cothole image was captioned “Ruin at Cothole”. Another caption simply asked “Left or Right?”. Between the location, the photographs and the measured route, the ride had now become less of a vague reconnaissance and more of an actual result.

A little farther on came the second cluster of ruins. A second georeferenced ruin cluster nearby is labelled Strone in the activity photographer's record. The activity records a second ruin cluster as Strone, although the checked national record groups the wider site under Cothole. That is the careful version, and therefore the useful one: two separately photographed and georeferenced clusters, without pretending the surviving records settle their formal relationship. One of the later images carried the gloriously diplomatic caption “STANDOFF!”. The caption can keep its mystery; no livestock, obstacle or negotiation will be invented to explain it.

The return leg carried the route back east towards Loch of Clunie and Kinloch, closing the loop within about five and a half metres of its start. Total moving time was 48 minutes, while the longer elapsed time leaves room for the photography recorded in the activity.

The useful haul was more than a set of coordinates. I came home with a 360 spherical view and separate 3D models of Cothole and Strone Farmstead Ruins. The national record supplied a firm classification, the route supplied the sequence, and the camera supplied personal evidence that I photographed the sites. Mission achieved: ruins photographed, geometry captured, and history left no more certain than the sources allow. A surprisingly disciplined outcome for an expedition that included a caption reading “STANDOFF!”.