Hunterston Terminal
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hunterston Terminal, in
North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...
, Scotland, was an
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
and coal-handling port located at Fairlie on the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...
, operated by Clydeport which was taken over by
The Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...
in 2003. It lies south of Fairlie, adjacent to
Hunterston Hunterston, by the Firth of Clyde, is a coastal area in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the seat and estate of the Hunter family. As an area of flat land adjacent to deep natural water, it has been the site of considerable actual and proposed industria ...
estate, site of Hunterston Castle, and its jetty projects out approximately , about midway into the channel between the mainland and the island of
Great Cumbrae Great Cumbrae ( sco, Muckle Cumbrae; gd, Cumaradh Mòr; also known as Great Cumbrae Island, Cumbrae or the Isle of Cumbrae) is the larger of the two islands known as The Cumbraes in the lower Firth of Clyde in western Scotland. The island is s ...
. The port, completed in 1979, was originally called Hunterston Ore Terminal and was built to handle iron ore for
British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
's
Ravenscraig steelworks The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by Colvilles and from 1967 by British Steel Corporation, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Motherwell ...
. Existing facilities at General Terminus Quay on the upper
River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
were unsuitable for increasingly large vessels. Hunterston, with its jetty, was able to handle modern ships of any size, but was closed in 2016 and the site cleared in 2019.


History

The new port at Hunterston replaced facilities at General Terminus Quay (now Springfield Quay), on the
River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
, near the centre of
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.Campbell, R.H. ''Iron and Steel''. Chapter 5 in: Cunnison and Gilfillan (1958). These facilities had been designed in the early 1950s to allow the simultaneous unloading of two large ships carrying bulk
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
. The ships were designed to carry 12,000
ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...
s (12,200
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s) of iron ore.Sleeman (1958). ''The Present System: The Port of Glasgow To-day''. In Chapter 10 of: Cunnison & Gilfillan (1958). Iron ore was to be transported, in railway waggons, via the
General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway The General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway was authorised on 3 July 1846 and it opened, in part, in December 1848. Awdry, Page 75 Its main function was intended to be the transportation of coal from collieries and Lanarkshire and Ayrshir ...
, from the General Terminus Quay to the new
Ravenscraig steelworks The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by Colvilles and from 1967 by British Steel Corporation, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Motherwell ...
which opened in the late 1950s.


Facilities at Hunterston Terminal

At Hunterston Terminal, an overhead conveyor linked to two
gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...
s carried ore or coal to a
railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...
on the
Ayrshire Coast Line The Ayrshire Coast Line is one of the lines within the Strathclyde suburban rail network in Scotland. It has 26 stations and connects the Ayrshire coast to Glasgow. There are three branches, to , and , all running into the high level at . ...
railway. Clydeport claimed an unloading rate of 2800
tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000  kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s of coal per hour. The conveyor was also linked to a ship loader to load coal into smaller ships on the inner berth; this coal was transported to
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
amongst other places. Among other users, coal from Hunterston Terminal supplied Drax power station in
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
and was used at
Longannet power station Longannet power station was a large coal-fired power station in Fife, and the last coal-fired power station in Scotland. It was capable of co-firing biomass, natural gas and sludge. The station stood on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, nea ...
in
Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
until its closure in 2016. The need to link to Longannet was a major reason for the reopening of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link, although this only served the plant for its last eight years. The terminal was closed in 2016, and lay dormant. In 2012 a National Offshore Wind Turbine Test facility was installed at the Hunterston Construction Yard, and two
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s tested for use on
offshore wind farms Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the Wind power, generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per ...
. One was dismantled in 2018, the second was demolished in 2019. In 2018
North Ayrshire Council North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
granted planning permission to use the site for decommissioning oil rigs. In May 2019
The Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...
(which had taken over the asset from Clydeport in 2003) launched a public consultation on proposed uses for the former terminal. The site was cleared by a year long demolition contract commencing in March 2019, both unloaders were removed around August 2019. From December 2019, two
drillships A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped ...
, owned and operated by
Valaris plc Valaris plc is an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and incorporated in the UK. It is the largest offshore drilling and well drilling company in the world, and owns 56 rigs, including 40 offshore jackup rigs, 11 dril ...
, were moored at the jetty.


Hunterston PARC

The former iron ore and coal yard, which occupied of land alongside the terminal was cleared by Clydeport at a cost of £10m, to create the Hunterstone Port and Resource Centre (PARC). The aim is to create an 'energy and marine campus... to deliver technological advances in areas such as power generation and aquaculture'. In August 2021 it was announced that one of the users of the site would be XLCC, a new company planning to make high voltage undersea cables.
HVDC A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating curren ...
cables are needed both by offshore wind farms and for long-distance interconects, to shift surplus electricity around the UK and to and from neighbouring countries. The process requires huge quantities of aluminium, lead, steel and bitumen, and the resulting cable weighs per metre. It needs to be made in lengths of up to so direct access to a vast purpose-built cable-laying ship is vital, making the adjacent terminal a key feature of the new plant. The intended production capacity for the plant is of HVDC cable a year, which is almost as much as the 2020 total European production of such cables. This will require around £1bn of investment on the manufacturing plant and the ship.


See also

*
List of ports and harbours in Scotland This is a list of ports and harbours in Scotland based on Department for Transport data. See also * List of RNLI stations#Scotland Division * List of ports and harbours of the Atlantic Ocean#United Kingdom * List of North Sea ports#United Kin ...


References

;Notes ;Sources * Cunnison, J. and Gilfillan, J.B.S., (1958). ''The City of Glasgow'' (''The Third
Statistical Account of Scotland The ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The ''Old (or First) Statistical Ac ...
'', Volume V). Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.


External links

{{commons category
Clydeport website

Hunterston Coal Terminal

Virtual Hunterston - Websites all about Hunterston
Ports and harbours of Scotland Coal terminals Firth of Clyde