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studies in corrugated iron

These are close-up photographs of variously painted corrugated iron huts and barns.  They are mainly from the mainland and islands of north and west Scotland, apart from a few in Northumberland.  Many of them started off as simple houses, often now abandoned. Those still in use have been supplanted by a more comfortable home and today are used as storage; I haven't seen any inhabited for a long while.

The mystery, at least to me, is why so many of them are painted, usually rather brightly.  The winters there are very hard and the bulk of any paintwork is scoured away after a year or two- which is why the most interesting examples have many different colours showing. But why?  there's scarcely anyone around to see the colours.  Is it just a belief that paint will inhibit corrosion, no matter how temporarily.  Or are the bright colours a kind of beacon in low visibility?

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