Nobel's Explosives Company Ltd
There are good reasons why the ICI Nobel site isn’t covered more, the main one being that it’s an absolute bastard to get to. I’m not even joking: Once you get near you have to navigate a vast wasteland that borders various live sites covered by the 2005 Explosives Act and the best you can do is follow your GPS through the trees and try to stay well away from anything that might attract unwanted attention.
I’ve had this on my ‘to do’ list for around four years and never got round to it – partly because I hadn’t realised there was a power plant on the site. But when the connection was made I scoured maps galore to work out where the boundaries were, where the plant was and which route would likely give us enough cover to get there unseen. Almost an hour and a half later after hacking through scrubland, traversing a quarry and negotiating some severe terrain – not to mention being bitten by ticks and savaged by gorse bushes – we crested a sand dune and our destination lay before us.
The remoteness and natural topography of the Ardeer Peninsula lent itself perfectly to the requirements of the British Dynamite Factory when it was established here in 1871 – far enough from a civilisation that remained wary of such inventions and plentiful enough in sand for the construction of bunkers around the many buildings dotted about the 100 acre site.
In 1876 strands of the company were consolidated and became Nobel’s Explosives Company Ltd, while in 1926 (and some years after the death of its founder) it became a founding member of ICI. In 2002 the company was acquired by Troon Investments Ltd. At its peak around 13,000 people worked on the site.
Industrial Goliath and man of good intentions Alfred Nobel was by all accounts so perturbed by the suggestion that his discovery might be used to fuel ill intentions that he established the Nobel prizes – including the peace prize – by way of redressing the balance.
The plant itself is not the original, thought to have been built in the post-war years and operating at a capacity of 16MW. The power generated was then transported around the site to facilitate the factory’s operations.
If I’d visited four years ago when I first thought about it the place would have been in far better condition. That said, it offered up a lot of bits and pieces, documents and ultimately heavy industry that’s well worth the effort if you like that sort of thing…
Some of the control panels look like they would have been impressive in their day. Sadly many parts of them have now been smashed…
Slowly we began to climb up the installation, ultimately aiming for the roof…
And then we got to the roof, trying to see all aspects of it without anyone down below seeing us.
There wasn’t a soul about – nobody official, nothing except for an old man walking his dogs and another guy on a bike. It did make us feel like our approach had been a little over-cautious…
We didn’t have the said roof permits, but we went for it anyway…
There’s plenty more to see on the site but I got out of it what I wanted on this occasion. Maybe next time I’ll see what some of the other buildings have to offer…
Until then, thanks for stopping by
& excellent snappys! 
