- Joined
- Oct 14, 2013
- Messages
- 3,243
- Reaction score
- 12,106
I have wanted to visit nobel explosives for ages now,its only a short drive from the girlfriends and I have never been.so whilst up there she had to work so I decided to have a day there myself as she had been to the power station.so I was up early,made some sandwiches and I was off.it was the power station I wanted to see originally,but as I delved further in I started realising there is so much to see here other than the station.everyone who goes makes a beeline for the power station.and its understandable,but I wanted to see more.so I got the power station doe first then headed off in search.this place had got a bit of a hold on me.well it actually become an obsession for me.i had spent hours looking at maps pinpointing all the bits in the woods looking at old photos.looking at videos and old reports.inspired by Ben Cooper who done lots of work about ten years ago documenting the site.lots have been dem0lished since his early reports but still lots to see.so I found the woods were I was going to find stuff.well no amount of studying can prepare you for the scale of the place,it spreads all over the place.having to fight through bushes and trees and gorse,sand dunes and loads of barren paths I started to find things.nine hours later with aching feet and cut to shreds by all the overgrowth I was back in my car happy with what I had seen.there is still more to see here and I will go back.i have no idea what a lot of the stuff here was used for but it was so interesting..Nobel works was set up in Ayrshire in Ardeer in 1870 by the founder Alfred Nobel,it was not actually him who raised the funds for the works but two local men.who raised the 24,000 pounds needed.it specialised in dynamite for quarry and mining work.later for military and civilian use.it later merged with the newly formed ICI.the company offered good terms and conditions compared to many other companies.but it was dangerous work,with many accidents over the year and lots of fatalities.the site at its peak employed 13,000 people and had a dentist and bank and travel agent.also its own train station and buses.with a massive change in work and production being moved elsewhere lots of the site became derelict,ICI Nobel still exist there as a company but on a smaller scale.it was said that the Ardeer works was the bane of the German airforce and when yo wander around you can see why.massive sand dunes and hills and woods hiding everything and large buildings with gorse and and other plants grown on top to disguise them.there is so much history online if people want to divulge more like I did.
First up is the safety fuse testing building.
Lots of the original lights still hang in the buildings which is nice to see.i do like the old lights in buildings
A block a short way from the fuse testing building
he fertiliser works.i ca only guess fertiliser was heavily used in explosives.as we all know people have made crude fertiliser bombs.
The testing labs.there was several buildings here used for the development and testing of dynamite.with rooms with viewing slits for observation.And high speed cameras would be used in here to film the explosions in slow motion.
Test mortar pendulum
Away fro the labs is some small buildings this one has some old concrete plinths.maybe to hold a generator or something
fighting through some bushes I found this interesting room at the back of a building
A toilet bloc with some nice tiles
Now we start getting off the beaten track.and when you get in the woodland there is loads of these old tunnels with tracks in them.Obviously to transport goods around the site.i found these interesting and looked in loads of them
Deeper in I come across these giant concrete walls.with some interesting bits in
After coming out I spotted a shed in the trees and thought I would go to look.expecting just an empty shed I was surprised to see it was an old rail shed to store the carts or mini locos for the lines.the tracks still in there.
here was some underground room surrounded by blast walls
Some random trashed building
Another tunnel.this had a concrete room with little platforms
Heading into another bit of the woods was this big structure.in the front was lots of cogs and wheels and sticking out the back was the spindles from the cogs.there was a water pool at the end.maybe to cool something down.an interesting building.
The black powder mills.a massive concrete construction with room up and down.
SO next I head across an old quarry down a long road to this bridge which basically takes yo to a seperat part of the site.almost feels like an island on there
there was lots of these drying houses on there
Then we have the bunkers there was loads on here everywhere you look.but they are all the same in side.most are so overgrown you cant get to them.its basically a corrugated iron cover with lots of rooms coming of them for some sort of testing.
Coming back across the bridge is another large area full of more buildings.here is another tunnel.yet loads more of these
And here we have the cordite press houses.similar to the bunkers in the fact that they are similar but deffo more interesting.
These things were just to long.
Back in the woods again I find another tiny building which looked a bit newer
A bit of old signage
There was lots old pipes running through the woods but these have all been capped off now during the clean up in the ninties.
So that's it from ardeer.i will deffo go back as there is more to see in the woods and it was so overgrown.and lots on the south costal bit.i still have the power station to post at some point.i find it ironic that Alfred Nobel was the founder of the Nobel peace prize when he created such destructive things capable of killing lots of people.he said himself though in a quoute,his explanation
'MY dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions,as soon as men will find that in one instant,whole armies can be utterly destroyed,they shall abide by golden peace'
First up is the safety fuse testing building.
Lots of the original lights still hang in the buildings which is nice to see.i do like the old lights in buildings
A block a short way from the fuse testing building
he fertiliser works.i ca only guess fertiliser was heavily used in explosives.as we all know people have made crude fertiliser bombs.
The testing labs.there was several buildings here used for the development and testing of dynamite.with rooms with viewing slits for observation.And high speed cameras would be used in here to film the explosions in slow motion.
Test mortar pendulum
Away fro the labs is some small buildings this one has some old concrete plinths.maybe to hold a generator or something
fighting through some bushes I found this interesting room at the back of a building
A toilet bloc with some nice tiles
Now we start getting off the beaten track.and when you get in the woodland there is loads of these old tunnels with tracks in them.Obviously to transport goods around the site.i found these interesting and looked in loads of them
Deeper in I come across these giant concrete walls.with some interesting bits in
After coming out I spotted a shed in the trees and thought I would go to look.expecting just an empty shed I was surprised to see it was an old rail shed to store the carts or mini locos for the lines.the tracks still in there.
here was some underground room surrounded by blast walls
Some random trashed building
Another tunnel.this had a concrete room with little platforms
Heading into another bit of the woods was this big structure.in the front was lots of cogs and wheels and sticking out the back was the spindles from the cogs.there was a water pool at the end.maybe to cool something down.an interesting building.
The black powder mills.a massive concrete construction with room up and down.
SO next I head across an old quarry down a long road to this bridge which basically takes yo to a seperat part of the site.almost feels like an island on there
there was lots of these drying houses on there
Then we have the bunkers there was loads on here everywhere you look.but they are all the same in side.most are so overgrown you cant get to them.its basically a corrugated iron cover with lots of rooms coming of them for some sort of testing.
Coming back across the bridge is another large area full of more buildings.here is another tunnel.yet loads more of these
And here we have the cordite press houses.similar to the bunkers in the fact that they are similar but deffo more interesting.
These things were just to long.
Back in the woods again I find another tiny building which looked a bit newer
A bit of old signage
There was lots old pipes running through the woods but these have all been capped off now during the clean up in the ninties.
So that's it from ardeer.i will deffo go back as there is more to see in the woods and it was so overgrown.and lots on the south costal bit.i still have the power station to post at some point.i find it ironic that Alfred Nobel was the founder of the Nobel peace prize when he created such destructive things capable of killing lots of people.he said himself though in a quoute,his explanation
'MY dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions,as soon as men will find that in one instant,whole armies can be utterly destroyed,they shall abide by golden peace'
Last edited:
