# Admiralty Pier, Invergordon, October 2009



## zimbob (Oct 28, 2009)

More of 'reportette' this one, visited with *Bryag* and *Bax__* after we had been [ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=13364"]'here'[/ame]..

It's the end of the line for the fuel-oil that was originally stored in Inchindown - see 'here'.

Admiralty Pier was constructed around the start of WW1 as far as I can ascertain, Invergordon was upgraded to a full-scale Naval base at this period, replete with dockyard, fuelling and water supplies. The image below (c/o www.invergordon.info) shows the dockyard, with Admiralty Pier visible in the background :







One famous (and tragic) well-documented incident at Invergordon was the sinking of HMS Natal, a Duke of Edinburgh class cruiser. She was launched in 1905, and sunk in the Cromarty Firth on the 30th January 1915, with massive loss of life - estimates range between 391 and 420. The final verdict on the cause of sinking was a series of internal explosions, caused by faulty cordite. There have been speculations about sabotage by German agents, but nothing has ever been proved. Many of the young sailors killed remains lie in the nearby Rosskeen churchyard.

HMS Natal :






Another famous Naval incident was the 'Invergordon Mutiny' which took place in September of 1931, as a result of the Admiralty's decision to cut Naval pay by 10%, a serious blow to the lowly-paid ratings. Around a thousand sailors took part, in the form of passive resistance, and no ships sailed from Invergordon for two days. This caused a run on the Governments Gold reserves, and so, the pay cuts were reviewed, and in the end reduced.

Invergordon was used in WW2, although in a substantially reduced scale, as the improvement of aerial technology since WW1 meant it was far too vulnerable to attack from aircraft based in hostile Europe (see my report on the Tank Farm for the results of this!). The Admiralty finally gave up the Base operationally in 1957, with the Hon. Thomas Galbraith, Civil Lord to the Admiralty stating


> The decision to reduce the naval base at Invergordon was taken with reluctance in the interests of economy. Apart from the Oil Fuelling Depot, which will be kept in active use, the facilities at Invergordon will either be disposed of or put into care and maintenance.



Warship anchored at the Pier in the 50's :






These days the Pier's main use is for the many visiting cruise-liners which regularly call at Invergordon. The cruise-operator see it as an ideal deep-water base for visiting the Highlands of Scotland, with ships as large as the Queen Mary 2 -148,528GT, and 345 metres long berthing here.

RMS Queen Mary 2 at Invergordon :






She absolutely dwarves the pier here, to give an idea of scale, here is the Admiralty building today :






The trainrails are still visible on the Pier (as is the Tank farm in the distance):











There are large outlet valves for the fuel-oil :






And the pipes run along the pier, back up to the Tank Farm :






Looking at the building, over to the rigs :






The Croamrty Firth is home to many Oil-Rigs either laid-up or awaiting repair, and is a major base for rig repair and maintenace now, providing much-needed local employment. I do believe another member of this forum explored one back in the day 

Couple of last shots :











Pair of reprobates 






This was a nice wee ramble for me, it tied-in Inchindown and Seabank very nicely 





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## Bryag (Oct 29, 2009)

Nice report Zimbob, but with regards to tha last pic, who's the slim sexy guy on the left?


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## night crawler (Oct 29, 2009)

Most excellent report and photo's


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## Bax__ (Oct 29, 2009)

Bryag said:


> Nice report Zimbob, but with regards to tha last pic, who's the slim sexy guy on the left?



you forgot short ar*ed as well....


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## Trinpaul (Oct 30, 2009)

Great pics and report, really like the 1st pic though


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