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2016 is the year I will become a proper explorer(currently recruiting in Scotland) | General Exploring Chat Forum | 28DaysLater.co.uk

2016 is the year I will become a proper explorer(currently recruiting in Scotland)

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robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I have been interested in urban exploration since childhood when I spent most of my time in building sites and abandoned houses. I couldn't really appreciate the beauty of exploring these types of places during my childhood as like every other kid, I got bored easily, moved on to more mainstream hobbies like football. The idea of taking on urban exploration as a full time hobby has always been in the back of my mind along with a vast amount of other stuff. Recently I was looking at abandoned buildings and military sites online and stumbled across this great community full of explorers seeking the same thrills and adventures as me. I joined up and have spent a lot of time reading threads about equipment, locations, leads and rumors, reports and everything in between. All I can say is, I didn't think for a second that this community would be as big as it is. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of explorers in Scotland but I am not put off by this. I'll use it as motivation to join or even create my own urban exploration team to explore and document the forgotten places in this amazing country. I have all of the equipment I need that I need to explore a wide range of sites and have a basic understanding of of the principles of urban exploration. I am currently recruiting explorers to join my team or I would be equally happy joining another team. An amateur photographer would be advantageous as would anyone with any kind of experience in the art of urban exploration. Thanks for reading and if you're living in Scotland and are interested in teaming up then don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
 

The Lone Ranger

Safety is paramount!
Staff member
Moderator
Welcome along, as you say lots to see in Scotland and not that many folk doing it for some reason.

I pass through every month or so and try to find somewhere to stop off on my way up to Aberdeen or around that area. Hopefully you'll find someone to head out with, just wish I had the time to get to some of the places I have found while doing a bit of research.
 

robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Welcome along, as you say lots to see in Scotland and not that many folk doing it for some reason.

I pass through every month or so and try to find somewhere to stop off on my way up to Aberdeen or around that area. Hopefully you'll find someone to head out with, just wish I had the time to get to some of the places I have found while doing a bit of research.
I need to do some research but not having a partner to explore with is a problem. I would prefer having somebody else with me who has experience I can learn from and hopefully make new friends. Where is the best places to find information on locations? I seen somewhere that local libraries are a great place to start.
 

The Lone Ranger

Safety is paramount!
Staff member
Moderator
The search button at the top right is a good place to start as is the locations map, but plenty more options - here's a few :thumb

Architects websites
Architectural news websites
Arrse (Army rumours forum)
basejumper . Com (a nice 2 way relationship – we both feed each other info at times)
Bing maps
Building company websites
Buildings at risk register
Charities Commission
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (http://ctbuh.org/)
Companies house
Crown Estates
Demolition company websites
Derp /Subbrit /flickr/ photobucket/deviant art (etc. etc. )
e-goat (RAF rumours forum)
Ebay - maps, plans, deeds, historical paperwork, post cards, etc.
English Heritage (and it's Scottish/Welsh equivalents)
English Nature
Estate agents
Facebook
Freedom of Information act requests
geograph (org .uk)
Good old leg work/looking around
Google
Google earth
Graffiti forums (I'll not list them, but a few out there)
Keeping your ears open (found a cracking explore from an overheard conversation in a hospital lift once)
Keeping your eyes open
Letterboxing websites/forums
Local archaeological societies
Local authority planning applications
Local Fire service websites (where have the local chavs been trying to torch?)
Local historical societies
Local knowledge (ask around)
Local library
Local museum
Local papers
Local Police website (where have they been to catch pikeys?)
Local TV news
National library
National Trust
navy-net (Navy rumours forum)
Ordinance survey maps (new)
Ordinance survey maps (old)
Photo library collections (Frith etc.)
police999 . com
policeoracle . com
The National archives
ukpoliceonline .co . uk
What do they know? website
Where' s the path? website
Youtube
 

robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Thanks, that's a very long list of places to look. I did look through about 20 pages of the leads and rumours thread but there wasn't anything even remotely close to me. I suppose it would be better to actually explore and find a place using my own initiative rather than relying on information from other members. Thanks for the help, I hope to post my first report in the coming months.
 

Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
The reason why there appears to be few scottish explorers is quite complicated so i won't get into specifics suffice to say it's a hangover from UE politics from years ago. There are a few out there but you will find them almost totally reluctant to share anything with the wider community. Please don't fall into that trap, there's loads to be seen up there if you have the time to persist with it and it would be really good to have 'normal' explorers in Scotland again.
 

robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
The reason why there appears to be few scottish explorers is quite complicated so i won't get into specifics suffice to say it's a hangover from UE politics from years ago. There are a few out there but you will find them almost totally reluctant to share anything with the wider community. Please don't fall into that trap, there's loads to be seen up there if you have the time to persist with it and it would be really good to have 'normal' explorers in Scotland again.
I have no intention to break away from the wider Explorer community because I have no reason to. I don't know anything about what happened in the past with the community but I wasn't anything to do with it.
 

robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
The reason why there appears to be few scottish explorers is quite complicated so i won't get into specifics suffice to say it's a hangover from UE politics from years ago. There are a few out there but you will find them almost totally reluctant to share anything with the wider community. Please don't fall into that trap, there's loads to be seen up there if you have the time to persist with it and it would be really good to have 'normal' explorers in Scotland again.
Actually I would like to know what happened if you have the time and/or patience to do so. It must've been pretty bad for them to behave like that.
 

Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
Well it all depends who you ask really. Facts are the scottish explorers who were around 7-8 years ago stopped sharing stuff they found. The short term outcome was a few English explorers they had taken a disliking too missed out on seeing a few of places in their prime. Longer term outcome was the almost total death of the exploring community in Scotland.

I look forward to seeing what you can find.
 

SirHissjunior

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Well it all depends who you ask really. Facts are the scottish explorers who were around 7-8 years ago stopped sharing stuff they found. The short term outcome was a few English explorers they had taken a disliking too missed out on seeing a few of places in their prime. Longer term outcome was the almost total death of the exploring community in Scotland.

I look forward to seeing what you can find.

It's funny you should mention this as I got talking to a fellow Scottish explorer some months ago through Instagram. He private messaged me to ask that I don't share anything on this forum. I asked why and he said that there is a core of people on here who keep reports from public view so they can be the first to explore them then they 'throw the scraps' to the rest of the users. He didn't name specific people but I assumed he was referring to the admins as they are surely the only ones with the privileges to do this? (IF it even happens!)
I stress that this was the conversation I had with him and I do not in any way agree with him.
Personally I haven't posted a report for two reasons........1) The majority of places I've explored in Scotland and England are already done to death on here and 2) I can't work out how to post images even when following the advice! Haha!
 

Speed

Got Epic?
Regular User
Yeh ironic isn't it!! Its quite the opposite really, they are just desperate that places are kept from people they dislike. 28 days has always made information widely available. They know if something ends up on here then everyone will know about it and they wont have a monopoly anymore.
 

robertT230

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I think I'm a normal Scottish explorer, alas based in Englandshire :D
Yeah Haha exploring seems to be a huge thing in England but I have to use my initiative to discover new places because of the current situation with the lack of Scottish explorers unwilling to share information. I have a lead on an old lifeguard station close by so I'll see if it's worth look.
 

SirHissjunior

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I like to think of myself as an abnormal Scottish explorer. :D
Surprisingly there is a thriving community of us up here, in my wee town I know of at least 6 and I've spoken to easily a dozen more from further afield.
A lot of the folk I've spoken to seem to stay away from 28DL as there is a lack of Scottish sites on it but then ironically that could be to do with Scottish explorers not posting reports! Enough to make your head hurt!:confused:
 
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