{"id":59723,"date":"2025-05-27T23:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59723"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T22:15:31","slug":"the-torwood-blue-pool-a-little-known-mystery-in-a-scottish-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/05\/27\/the-torwood-blue-pool-a-little-known-mystery-in-a-scottish-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Torwood Blue Pool, a little-known mystery in a Scottish forest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scotland is known for its legends of ghosts and lake monsters, but there are other mysteries worth mentioning as well.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/18\/an-enigmatic-cave-that-the-united-states-government-has-banned-entry-to-since-1940\/\">An enigmatic cave that the United States government has banned entry to since 1940<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/10\/20\/the-legend-of-the-curry-hollow-tunnel-and-the-enigmatic-door-to-nowhere\/\">The legend of the Curry Hollow Tunnel and the enigmatic 'Door to Nowhere'<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One such mystery lies in Tor Wood, in the heart of Scotland, about 45 kilometers west of Edinburgh. There, 3 kilometers west of the town of Denny, lies <strong>a small circular pool 6 meters in diameter known as the Torwood Blue Pool<\/strong>, located in the middle of the forest and now accessible via a forest track.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550263700_727926d039_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550263700_032a91994b_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">An image of Torwood's Blue Pool taken 14 years ago (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geograph.org.uk\/photo\/2373803\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Murray \/ geograph.org.uk<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>Eighteen years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geograph.org.uk\/photo\/435943\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigel J.C. Turnbull posted the photo of the pool at the top of this article<\/a> on geograph.org.uk, noting: <em>\"Known to locals as the Blue Pool or the Blue Water, <strong>this 6.1 metre (20 feet) internal diameter brick lined vertical shaft is 4 metres deep<\/strong>. Although the pool now looks black in colour and heavy with algal growth, <strong>it used to be the most amazing blue colour with water so clear you could see the bottom<\/strong> \u2014 it was like looking through a blue diamond. I recently discovered that many local youths used it as a swimming pool.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550295290_d5700ca601_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550295290_d5700ca601_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">A photo of Torwood's Blue Pool taken on August 29, 2009 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170228120057\/http:\/\/ntgraphics.co.uk\/investigation\/bluepool.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigel J.C. Turnbull \/ ntgraphics.co.uk<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>Turnbull added: <em>\"<strong>I have been trying to discover the original purpose of this redundant feature but nobody (so far) knows.<\/strong> Most locals have never heard of it so <strong>I have started the ball rolling by putting up a web page to act as a nucleus for the Torwood Blue Pool Investigation<\/strong> where you can contribute your knowledge or just keep up to date with progress.\"<\/em> Sadly, <a href=\"http:\/\/ntgraphics.co.uk\/investigation\/bluepool.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that website is no longer available<\/a>, but <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170228120057\/http:\/\/ntgraphics.co.uk\/investigation\/bluepool.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an automatic copy can be viewed on the Web Archive here<\/a>. Unfortunately, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/scotland-now\/mysterious-blue-pool-scotland-fascinated-28829835\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Turnbull died in 2012 at the age of 61<\/a> without solving this mystery, to which he dedicated much of his life, since he discovered the pool when he was a child.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550237438_410a1a37f9_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54550237438_410a1a37f9_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">A photo of Torwood's Blue Pool taken in April 2010, showing the forest track cut into the spot. Until then, the pool had been hidden in the woods (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geograph.org.uk\/photo\/435943\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigel J.C. Turnbull \/ geograph.org.uk<\/a>.).<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/scotland-now\/mysterious-blue-pool-scotland-fascinated-28829835\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Turnbull believed that Torwood's Blue Pool was connected to Quarter Colliery<\/a>, a nearby mine that was closed in 1910 after an explosion that killed a dozen miners. The accident flooded the mine. <strong>Turnbull thought the pool might be an old mine airshaft.<\/strong> According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/places\/torwood-blue-pool\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atlas Obscura<\/a>, it's actually a redundant burst pressure chamber and valve house built in 1910 and was part of the water supply network that ran from North Thirds Reservoir to Grangemouth. But <strong>what would beautiful Scotland be without a little mystery?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Regarding this enigma, <strong>I encourage you to watch this video in Spanish published by<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ZyroshiTV\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ZyroshiTV<\/a> a month ago, thanks to which I learned about this enigmatic pond (You can turn on automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"El misterio del estanque azul de Torwood | Oscuro y misterioso mundo\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KzgE3LHluco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geograph.org.uk\/photo\/435943\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nigel J.C. Turnbull \/ geograph.org.uk<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scotland is known for its legends of ghosts and lake monsters, but there are other mysteries worth mentioning as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,16889],"tags":[24542,24543,12796,24541,24544,10678],"class_list":["post-59723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-mystery","tag-denny","tag-quarter-colliery","tag-scotland","tag-tor-wood","tag-torwood-blue-pool","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}