Ardeer

A very short film I made a good few years ago about the abandoned Nobel dynamite factory near to where I live which supplied munitions for the British war effort in both world wars and dynamite to the world in the age of exploration and grand civil engineering schemes. It is now derelict, a haven for wild life and full of interesting old, overgrown bomb-making factory units, surrounded by their blast pits, which are often flooded and a home for swans and aquatic life.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Nobel
• dynamite
• ardeer
• shipbuilding
• munitions

[fisk2521]

I'm told my Grandmother worked at Ardeer as a nurse. She lived in Saltcoats and was married to Archie Dick. The family immigrated to the US in around 1924. Family stories say that Mary Murray Dick received some kind of an award for her diligence after some explosion there. Must have been during WWI. So interested to see where this factory was and learn it's history because of her. Grand Lady, she was.

[revjimbob]

@fisk2521

If you type 'ardeer' into google earth it should take you straight there. The old factory can be seen on the east bank where the river Garnock takes sharp dog-leg east going upstream just north of the estuary it shares with the river Irvine - the dynamite units are seen as evenly laid out small artifiacial hills.

On my channel I have another short of Ardeer taken halloween 2010.

[anstria]

My father worked in the dynamite at Ardeer; so did my mother - they met there. So did his father and hers and their brothers and sisters. Thankfully I was spared that fate when we emmigrated.

[revjimbob]

My mother worked there as a teenager during the war. When I left school they had a good intake of school-leavers - it was considered a good place to get a start in.

[davidsquall351]

Thats good that nature is taking it back :)

[URBANstig]

Good vid we were there about a month ago and I uploaded a vid.... Interesting place.... Would have loved to have seen it in the days it was working