A 'ghost-village' on the southwest coast of the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Polphail (also Pollphail) overlooks Loch Fyne a quarter-mile (0.5 km) southeast of Portavadie. Constructed at a cost of almost £1.5 million in the 1970s to accommodate the 500 workers who were expected to operate the nearby oil-rig construction yard, the village was never occupied because the yard received no orders - a major embarrassment to the government. The modernist concrete complex included a cafeteria, bar, retail kiosks, a bank, hospital unit and recreation facilities. It was fully-equipped, down to sheets on the beds in the dormitory blocks together with the machines to wash them. By the beginning of the 21st century the complex was desolate, forgotten and thoroughly ruined; with its windows smashed and much of its equipment and fixtures having been plundered by locals. The village was featured in a short documentary film in 2009 directed by Matt Lloyd, which premiered at the Inverness Film Festival. It was finally demolished in 2016 at a cost of £300,000.
