RNAD Coulport

Le dépôt royal d'armement naval de Coulport, abrégé en RNAD Coulport, au Loch Long, en Écosse, est l’installation de stockage et de chargement des têtes nucléaires du programme Trident du Royaume-Uni. La base, près du village de Coulport, compte seize bunkers en béton armé construits à flanc de colline, à l'est du Loch Long. C'est le dernier dépôt en Grande-Bretagne à conserver la désignation "RNAD", indiquant un dépôt royal d'armement naval. Le dépôt a été créé pendant la guerre froide en tant qu’installation de stockage et de chargement des armes nucléaires Polaris. Coulport est principalement utilisé pour exploiter les ogives Trident. Deux quais sont situés le long du littoral au pied de la colline. Les armes y sont chargées dans les sous-marins nucléaires Vanguard avant qu’ils ne patrouillent. Elles sont déchargées et entreposées avant leur retour à la base de Faslane, située à proximité. Une jetée plus ancienne est connue sous le nom de jetée Polaris, tandis que la nouvelle jetée de manutention d’explosifs (EHJ) est utilisée pour la manutention des ogives Trident.

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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, has up to 16 reinforced concrete bunkers built into the hillside on the eastern shore of Loch Long. It is the last depot in Britain to retain the "RNAD" designation, indicating a Royal Naval Armaments Depot. The depot was established during the Cold War as the storage, maintenance and loading facility for Polaris nuclear weapons. Today, Coulport is mainly used for handling Trident warheads. Two docks are located on the shoreline at the foot of the hill. There, weapons are loaded onto Vanguard-class nuclear submarines before they go on patrol and unloaded before they return to base at nearby Faslane. An older jetty is known as the Polaris Jetty, while the newer, covered explosive handling jetty (EHJ) is used for handling Trident warheads.

826 m

Coulport (village)

Coulport (Scottish Gaelic: An Cùl Phort - literally the Back Port or Ferry) is a village on the east side of Loch Long and the west side of the Rosneath Peninsula, in Argyll and Bute, west of Scotland. It is 5 miles (8 km) north-north-west of Cove. It marks the end of the B833 shore road, although the village can also be reached by a high-quality but unclassified access road (primarily designed for naval traffic) directly from Garelochhead. The village looks across to the small settlement of Ardentinny on the west shore to which, in the 18th/19th century, there was a ferry. John Kibble, the son of a Glasgow metal merchant, was one of several wealthy Glasgow merchants who had large villas built at Coulport in the nineteenth century either as permanent residences or summer retreats. Several still survive, some now flatted, others in a dilapidated condition. Kibble's Coulport House was the original location of the giant conservatory known as the Kibble Palace (now in Glasgow's Botanic Garden). Since the 1960s Coulport has been most associated with the Trident missile storage and the nearby Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD Coulport) situated there as part of HMNB Clyde.

Loch Long

Loch Long is a body of water in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The sea loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end, to the Arrochar Alps at the head of the loch. It measures approximately 20 miles (30 kilometres) in length, with a width of between one and two miles (two and three kilometres). The loch also has an arm, Loch Goil, on its western side. Loch Long forms part of the coast of the Cowal Peninsula, and forms the entire western coastline of the Rosneath Peninsula. Loch Long was historically the boundary between Argyll and Dunbartonshire; however, boundary redrawing in 1996 meant that it moved wholly within the council area of Argyll and Bute.

Ardentinny

Ardentinny (Scottish Gaelic: Àird an t-Sionnaich or Àird an Teine) is a small village on the western shore of Loch Long, 14 miles (23 km) north of Dunoon in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Nearby is Cruach a Chaise (Cheese Hill). On the opposite side of Loch Long is the village of Coulport, home of RNAD Coulport, the storage and loading base for the UK's Trident submarine fleet, part of the extensive HMNB Clyde. The name Ardentinny means "hill of fire", deriving either from the ancient rite of lighting fires to the god Bel on 1 May or, more likely, from warning fires to aid mariners. It was the fife of the McInturner's Baron's Craigcoll, Ardentinny & Glenfinart before they were murdered by Clan Campbell for supporting Clan Lamont in the reign of Robert the Bruce. The ferry between Ardentinny and Coulport was summoned by a fire and was used by the Dukes of Argyll travelling between Dunoon, Inveraray and Rosneath Castle and in later years by drovers from Argyll travelling to the markets in Central Scotland. The village had two hotels catering for the general public. The Ardentinny Outdoor Centre is run by Actual Reality, which has two centres in Cowal. The local economy is reliant on tourism and agriculture, with major employers being the outdoor centre and the caravan park. There was one working fishing boat based in Ardentinny, trawling for prawns but that no longer resides there. Residents also work in Dunoon and across the Clyde. The village is served by the 489 (direct) and 486 (via Kilmun) bus service to and from Dunoon. There are many holiday home rentals now being offered to tourists, as Ardentinny is within Argyll Forest Park, which is itself within Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The Ardentinny Hotel was struck by lightning on 19 May 2014. It re-opened in June 2017, after refurbishment, as a bar and bistro named The Ardentinny. In the village is the grave of Archibald Douglas, who made his fortune from sugar plantations in the West Indies. The site, known as Laird's Grave, also hosts one of the tallest trees in Scotland, a Douglas Fir which has been measured as between 65.2m and 68.6m tall.

2.6 km

Ardpeaton

Ardpeaton is a settlement on the Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll and Bute, west of Scotland. On the east shore of Loch Long. The population is under 1000.