Lost' signs force village to change name

LONDON --Lost: several road signs and one village's identity. Exasperated at having souvenir hunters steal their road sign, residents of Lost -- population, less than two dozen -- have changed the Scottish hamlet's name to Lost Farm.

At least five road signs have disappeared in recent years from the village. The longest any sign lasted was three months, and one vanished after a day, said Mark Skilling, principal engineer for Aberdeenshire Council.

"It's infuriating," he said Friday. "The hamlet is very popular because of its name." Skilling said it costs around $185 to replace each sign. "Apart from making it, we have to take it to Lost, which is quite far away," he said. "We hope that the name change means in future the sign will last." Lost -- whose name comes from the Celtic word for "inn" -- is 40 miles west of Aberdeen, in the Cairngorm mountains of northeast Scotland, near the village of Bellabeg, where the Water of Nochty feeds into the River Don.

Aside from the remote location, thousands of tourists have found Lost every summer since it was mentioned in guidebooks several years ago. During the rare periods when there has been a sign, visitors loved to pose for photographs with it.

On the Net: Aberdeenshire Council, http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk