AN EXPLORER has detailed his visit to a tiny ruin-laden Scots island – which took him over an hour of paddleboarding to reach.
Joshua McCartney has been visiting remote and abandoned places for the last six years, and discovered the island of Inchmickery on the Firth of Forth after casually scrolling on Google Maps.
Spotting several ruins from the birds eye view of the island, Joshua from London decided to set out to the tiny island on just his paddleboard to satisfy his curiosity.
Video begins with Joshua explaining how he discovered the island saying: “I found lots of abandoned buildings on a remote island on Google Earth – so I decided to head out on an adventure to check it out.”
Footage then shows Joshua crossing a causeway to Cramond Island – another small island off the north coast of Edinburgh – on the start of his journey over to Inchmickery.
He says: “I started by walking across this causeway which connected to a small island.
“It was a tough hike carrying up my paddle board but soon I summited the highest point and headed down to the other side towards the coast.
“But while hiking through the forest I noticed something deeper in the trees.”
Footage then shows a dilapidated, heavily overgrown ruin littered with graffiti, which Joshua approaches and ducks inside of.
He continues: “Taking a quick detour to check it out it was some kind of overgrown ruin and as I continued hiking I soon stumbled across even more ruins.
“It became clear to me that this island was once used as a military base, this is also when I got my first look at the island I’d be headed out to.”
The clip then cuts to different shots of the various military style buildings littered around Cramond Island, before zooming in to Inchmickery visible in the distance of the Firth of Forth.
Joshua adds: “I’m excited and I’m nervous so I pumped up my paddleboard and found a spot by this strange pipe to head off.
“I instantly almost fell in but then regained my balance and started battling the sea to reach this island.
“It took almost an hour but finally I reached the shore.”
Joshua posted the video to social media last Sunday, where it has since received more than 69,000 likes and over 250 comments from users.
One user wrote: “That pipe you were next to on Cramond Island is a sewerage outlet. I hope you didn’t get too close.”
Another wrote: “No way my man went to Cramond Island, ive been found passed out in bushes many times at festivals there, mad seeing it pop up here.”
A third joked: “Heading out with his trusty giant spoon.”
Another commented: “I wanna parkour there.”
Speaking today Joshua said: “I have been doing adventures consistently since I left high school, so about six years or so.
“But I focused more on finding hidden spots using Google Maps when I lived out in Macau, China about three years ago.
“I lived in a very built up area and wanted a nature escape so I started using Google Maps to see what was nearby that I could hike to.
“I found this old WW2 lookout tower and had a tough off-trail hike to reach it. I was sunburnt, sweaty, with cuts all over but was the happiest I had ever been.
“Since then I’ve been hooked and try to go out on these adventures every weekend or holiday I get.”
Talking about his venture to Inchmickery, Joshua explained: “It took just over an hour to paddle board there as it was against the tide and when I arrived there were absolutely tons of seagulls.
“Like thousands for sure, the noise was surprisingly loud and I got s**t on quite a bit as I explored.
“In terms of the buildings there were lots of pillboxes and small lookout buildings and going in deeper I found more large scale structures and buildings.
“There was a large lookout tower in the middle and areas around it that were clearly used to house large artillery guns.
“Most of the rooms were stripped with very little remaining (but no graffiti at all) but I did find a rifle rack which was cool.
“Some areas of the island were very easy to explore with not much vegetation but some areas were super thick with thorns and bushes which made exploring tough.
“I did manage to crawl my way through some areas and even found some buildings that were submerged just under the ground, I think to be used as shelters from air raids or shelling.
“It took hours and after a while the seagulls began to attack me with low flying swoops so I decided to leave the island and head back to the mainland.
“The island was more than I expected. It’s one thing to see it from a distance or on a map but walking through the ruins of a large military base totally isolated and surrounded by water is a whole other feeling.
“There was also a lot more to explore than I thought.”
Inchmickery’s name is derived from the Scottish Gaelic Innis nam Biocaire, meaning Isle of the Vicars, implying that there may have been an old ecclesiastical or Culdee settlement at one point.
Whilst only approximately 100 metres by 200 metres in size, the island was used in both World Wars as a gun emplacement, but today serves as a bird reserve.
