Hunterston, by the Firth of Clyde, is a coastal area in

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, Scotland. It is the seat and

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representat ...

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 industrial development in the 20th century. The nearest town is West Kilbride. The Hunterston Brooch was found there. Actual or proposed developments on this site have included: * Hunterston A nuclear power station, the closed Magnox power station * Hunterston B nuclear power station, the Advanced gas-cooled reactor power station *

Western HVDC Link The Western HVDC Link is a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) undersea electrical link in the United Kingdom, between Hunterston in Western Scotland and Flintshire Bridge (Connah's Quay) in North Wales, routed to the west of the Isle of Man. It ...

, the 2.2 GW undersea power cable to

Flintshire Bridge The Flintshire Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge spanning the Dee Estuary in North Wales. The bridge links Flint and Connah's Quay to the shore north of the River Dee at the southern end of the Wirral Peninsula. The bridge cost £55million to con ...

, North Wales * Hunterston Terminal, the deep-water ore terminal and associated railhead built by British Steel * A construction yard, used to build

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s between 1978 and 1983, a Trident dry dock between 1988 and 1993 and a Gravity base Tank between 1993 and 1996 * A proposed Oil Refinery by Chevron in 1969 and 1973 * An integrated direct-reduction steel

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

proposed by British Steel Corporation. This was unused as its gas and fuel requirements were too great. The plant was moved to

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, in 1998. *A "

clean coal Coal pollution mitigation, sometimes called clean coal, is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the health and environmental impact of coal; in particular air pollution from coal-fired power stations, and from coal burnt ...

" power station has been proposed for the site. Peel Energy is the main partner in the proposal. However, the plan was said to have "collapsed" in 2009 after £2 billion of financial backing from

DONG Energy Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

was withdrawn.Watt, Chris (October 13, 2009) "Environmental groups claim victory after Hunterston plans collapse". ''The Herald''. Glasgow.

Trident Works Programme

A covered floating dry dock for the

Vanguard-class submarine The ''Vanguard'' class is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) in service with the Royal Navy. The class was introduced in 1994 as part of the Trident nuclear programme, and comprises four vessels: , , and , built ...

s was built at Hunterston, and floated to

RNAD Coulport Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport, shortened to RNAD Coulport, on Loch Long in Argyll, Scotland, is the storage and loading facility for the nuclear warheads of the United Kingdom's Trident programme. The base, near the village of Coulport ...

where it has been situated since 1993. This Explosive Handling Jetty is one of the world's largest floating concrete structures.

References

External links

Virtual HunterstonHunterston A Power StationGravity Base TankHunterston Ore/Coal TerminalHunterston Oilrig StorySubmarine Dry DockOpposing the proposed power plantEverything about Hunterston
{{North Ayrshire Geography of North Ayrshire Trident (UK nuclear programme)