Thanks to Atlas Obscura, I discovered that less than 5 miles from my home the mysterious Blue Pool is located in Torwood Forest – a man-made brick pool filled with weird teal-blue water. 

The pool 20-feet across and around 12 feet deep and it’s purpose and builder remain a local mystery.

*UPDATE 2021*

• Last time I visited the pool is getting more murky and full of debris
• There has been a lot of forestry activity since I first visited, some of the paths are very rutted and muddy
• There is a car park just off Glen road, you could park here (see map) follow the (roman) road towards Torwood Castle and head down towards the Blue Pool from there.

When I first visited, I parked my car in a muddy layby near the village of Denny and set of in search of the Blue Pool. It’s a pleasant walk through fields and woods and a pretty nice view – you can see the distinctive red diamonds of the Forth Rail bridge (although my phone camera barely picks it up!) and a good view of the Forth Valley.

Hopping over a stream, I met a cheery couple walking their collie dog and asked them if they knew where the pool was. – Not far – look for the line of pylons and it’s on your left (on the right if heading down from the castle) through a gap in the stone wall beside the path.

Well their directions were spot on and 10 mins later I found the pool. Looking through the gap in the stone wall, there were two beardy, studenty guys standing in the forest, staring at something on the forest floor. Aha! The Blue Pool of Torwood!

It’s exactly as described – brick lined pool of very still eerie blue water. At the bottom there looks like some kind of small tunnel heading off underground but it’s hard to see as the walls have crumbled and the bottom of the pool is full of rubble and sticks.

The beardy students reckon that the pool was the base for a hydraulic crane (they were engineering students) but there aren’t any other industrial structures nearby. I’m none the wiser having stared at the pool for a bit. Other theories include a water storage pool in case of fires at Torwood castle, settling pools for mine workings, a folly? Whatever it is, nowadays it’s NOT for swimming in nor drinking from!

On the path, I met the couple with the collie again. They asked me if I was going to head on towards the Tappoch broch (a broch is a Scottish prehistoric circular stone tower).

So I did.

Then I found the ruins of Torwood Castle… which it turns out sit on an old roman road!

The Ruins of Torwood Castle

About a mile on from the Blue Pool I found markers for the broch

Signpost mark the way to Tappoch Broch across recently felled woodland

I found the broch and to my surprise, I wasn’t alone here either. A young couple were standing on the remains of the broch wall. They told me they were getting married next year and were considering the broch as their wedding venue….very romantic in a kooky kinda way!

By now the sun was setting and there was a definite October chill in the air so I retraced my steps towards the car.

As I headed back, I met two self-styled urban explorers who stopped me to ask if I knew where the Blue Pool was. It’s good to know that I’m not the only intrepid explorers seeking out the weird core and the world’s oddities 🙂