Nobel ExplosIves - Ardeer, Scotland, October 2022

[granticle]

I’m fairly new to this site and this is my first report, so please be gentle and keep any criticism constructive please.

It was suggested I do some reports of places I’ve been. Although it’s now a few months since I visited, I thought this one is still relevant.

This site has huge history. Now completely abandoned and decommissioned for over a decade.

Alfred Nobel (founder of the Nobel Peace Prize), opened the business at Ardeer in 1870, soon after inventing dynamite. It was the first place in the UK to create dynamite.

At its peak, the Ardeer site employed 13,000 men and women in its remote location.

At the time of Nobel’s death in 1896, the company were the largest exporters of explosives in the world.

I’ve read of people spending 9 hours exploring this place. My explore focussed solely on the explosive testing buildings at the top of the and I didn’t venture into the area of the power station. This was a deliberate decision, as I was planning to photograph some of the graffiti and knew the best was in these buildings.

I was still 3 hours exploring these buildings. This was due to a combination of there being so much to see, the rows of buildings being quite far apart, and even in October with some of the vegetation dying off, it was still very overgrown.

Photos probably explain things better than I can, so here’s some of mine, cheers

 

[DaveFM]

This site is planned to be massively developed as its classed as brownfield but its also become an unofficial wildlife refuge so sort of being pulled in two directions. Development plans go back about 15 years but don't seem to have come to anything yet. Would be a shame to see it covered in housing but even in such a remote area there is huge pressure for development.

 

[granticle]

This site is planned to be massively developed as its classed as brownfield but its also become an unofficial wildlife refuge so sort of being pulled in two directions. Development plans go back about 15 years but don't seem to have come to anything yet. Would be a shame to see it covered in housing but even in such a remote area there is huge pressure for development.

You’d think somewhere with such history could be made into a museum / tourist attraction of some sort. Really is a breathtaking place to walk around and think about the history of the buildings.

Anyone trying to demolish the buildings will have a job on their hands with these buildings. Obviously where they were testing dynamite, the walls are very thick in places to withstand that

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Great first report, I soo need to spend a day here.
The graff is pretty good there too

 

[DaveFM]

Whats in the third picture, are they some sort of ovens?

 

[granticle]

Whats in the third picture, are they some sort of ovens?

Not too sure… this picture was taken in the same room
Dunno if that helps at all…

They were like little lockers but had some kind of electrics to them which had long since been stripped out by scavengers it seems. I think at the time I’d just thought of them as fuse boxes so didn’t pay too much attention

 

[Calamity Jane]

Nice 1st report. Good history too. I like the design with the red brick pillars. And yep some nice graff. It is so heart breaking that every green space gets developed into houses, makes me so angry. Houses yet no infrastructure!

 

[Mikeymutt]

Nicely done. I liked the bits you done although that graffiti looks new. I must admit I did spend nine hours in this place. And what a battle it was to do. I never even got to the west side of the site.

 

[HughieD]

Good stuff. Some really decent pics there...

 

[mookster]

Whats in the third picture, are they some sort of ovens?

Just a standard kind of electrical switchgear array