Was out for a drive a couple weekends ago and spotted some boarded up buildings, so decided to stop off and have a look whilst trying to dodge the dreaded drizzle!! Had no idea what it was but it looked military related, after a quick session on an amazing thing called google, I discovered it was a old Torpedo Testing Station.
The site opened in 1912 and the main purpose of the facility was to test firing torpedos out of torpedo tubes built beneath the pier or from modified vessels.
Ariel View of the site.
In 1915 a spy Augusto Alfredo Roggen was caught and hanged at the tower of London for taking photographs here.
The peak years at the Range occurred during the Second World War. Amazingly, in 1944 approximately 12,565 torpedoes were fired down the Loch, which works out at an average of 48 runs per day, Monday to Friday. On occasion as many as 62 torpedoes were fired in one day.
The very last torpedo to be ranged, at RNTR Arrochar, was fired on the 19th March 1986.
Demolition of the facility commenced in June 2007, and is still ongoing, unfortunately a huge fire was reported in August 2007. Since then demolition has slowed but the building have deteriorated greatly in the past few years.
First building I explored was a very basic prefab, fairly well boarded up
No idea what this cylinder was for, thought it might be for heating but the floor and inside the cylinder was covered with brown soft pellets??
A short walk and through a massive hole in the security fence, I was in the range
A lot of the smaller brick buildings have been crudely demolished
The warehouses for storing the torpedo's
Blue vinyl floor tiles remain
Turntable and tracks for moving the torpedo's
Turntable down one of the launching piers
Formerly a boat launching shed, winch still intact
Think these were harmful!
Huge amount of rusting reinforcement laying around
The building at the end of main pier, think this is where some of the torpedo's were launched from
Loads of starfish and mussels!!
Looking back towards the warehouses
After spending about a good hour wandering around the piers I headed to see more of the facilities outbuildings that were still standing and found a couple of caravans
Fuel Storage tanks, pretty rusty!
Couple big nissan huts, looked to be used for storage by a local builder
A bed for the night..
Thought about going for a wee surf...
Cranes were intact inside 3 of the buildings, couldn't access the largest it was pretty well sealed
A row of abandoned houses which were once for the workers of the bse, all seemed to have been recently part refurbed then left, such a waste!
Typical interior of the houses
Newspaper from Sept 2009
Ended up spending around 2 and a bit hours on the site just drifting around snapping away, not bad for a off chance spot whilst driving along
The site opened in 1912 and the main purpose of the facility was to test firing torpedos out of torpedo tubes built beneath the pier or from modified vessels.
Ariel View of the site.
In 1915 a spy Augusto Alfredo Roggen was caught and hanged at the tower of London for taking photographs here.
The peak years at the Range occurred during the Second World War. Amazingly, in 1944 approximately 12,565 torpedoes were fired down the Loch, which works out at an average of 48 runs per day, Monday to Friday. On occasion as many as 62 torpedoes were fired in one day.
The very last torpedo to be ranged, at RNTR Arrochar, was fired on the 19th March 1986.
Demolition of the facility commenced in June 2007, and is still ongoing, unfortunately a huge fire was reported in August 2007. Since then demolition has slowed but the building have deteriorated greatly in the past few years.
First building I explored was a very basic prefab, fairly well boarded up
No idea what this cylinder was for, thought it might be for heating but the floor and inside the cylinder was covered with brown soft pellets??
A short walk and through a massive hole in the security fence, I was in the range
A lot of the smaller brick buildings have been crudely demolished
The warehouses for storing the torpedo's
Blue vinyl floor tiles remain
Turntable and tracks for moving the torpedo's
Turntable down one of the launching piers
Formerly a boat launching shed, winch still intact
Think these were harmful!
Huge amount of rusting reinforcement laying around
The building at the end of main pier, think this is where some of the torpedo's were launched from
Loads of starfish and mussels!!
Looking back towards the warehouses
After spending about a good hour wandering around the piers I headed to see more of the facilities outbuildings that were still standing and found a couple of caravans
Fuel Storage tanks, pretty rusty!
Couple big nissan huts, looked to be used for storage by a local builder
A bed for the night..
Thought about going for a wee surf...
Cranes were intact inside 3 of the buildings, couldn't access the largest it was pretty well sealed
A row of abandoned houses which were once for the workers of the bse, all seemed to have been recently part refurbed then left, such a waste!
Typical interior of the houses
Newspaper from Sept 2009
Ended up spending around 2 and a bit hours on the site just drifting around snapping away, not bad for a off chance spot whilst driving along
, nice to see someone else has finally found the old firing tubes 
