Ship breaking in Scotland

[Rob Lightbody]

Amazing video of ship breaking in Scotland, something I've always thought we should do more of.

[Lynda Bradford]

Whoever did the video has done well capturing the ship breaking process.

I had to look up Kishorn Port to learn more about the facility.

https://www.kishornport.co.uk/about/overview/

[Chris Thompson]

And a ship ends up in the belly of another ship!
Very impressive video, particularly the machinery used in demolition, the metal shearing
machine is terrifyingly efficient!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Impressive video! Very effective machinery, very few humans at work there.

I wonder what next? Where do all those broken bits go? How much can and does get recycled? What is done with any toxic substances?

[pete cain]

Thanks Rob, absolutely facinating , agree with Isabelle, this looks a very clean process, no dirty oil & lubricants around (maybe offloaded earlier ?). Remember driving up to Stranrear on a Saturday to catch a glimpse of ARK ROYAL being dismantled, couldn't get any where near & photos taken with me  Kodak Instamatic are woeful , drove home again, LIz has always been forgiving. I'm sure old Ark Royal videos are around along with ex crew members visiting Stranrear with the obvious tear jerking footage, got em on vhs somewhere, now where is the player
  Got to be better here like this than in Alang, but costs dear boy always costs.....

[Rob Lightbody]

There's a further interesting article about it here, it's expanding.

BBC News - Permission given for expansion of Kishorn dry dock
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-56814448

[Andy Holloway]

Impressive video! Very effective machinery, very few humans at work there.

I wonder what next? Where do all those broken bits go? How much can and does get recycled? What is done with any toxic substances?

All the scrap metal goes off to be recycled into loads of different things, even new ships! They are probably able to recycle almost 100%, in one way or another. The toxic materials will have been removed off site, before this ship was brought to 'meet her maker'!
This is how ship breaking SHOULD be done, clean, efficient and with limited mileage to remove the scrap. In this case about 200m, from the bottom of the dry dock to the ship waiting at the Caisson.

Measure this with the way it is done in India, where they just drag the ship gradually up the beach, contaminating all around it as it gets broken up en route!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

I agree with you, Andy.

It does look as though employment in Scotland would be much lower than in Alang -- although of course we must keep in mind that the jobs in Alang are both dangerous and health-threatening.

Alang also seems to offer opportunities to sell and buy items rescued off the ships. But maybe that is also provided for in Scotland.

[Rod]

But, when you think about it, what a brilliant idea!
Taking a natural part of the landscape which comprises three sides and just add a forth.
Bit short on accommodation for workers though, but, as has been done in the past they could hire/buy a cruise ship. There are one or two of them knocking about unused!
They announced yesterday that they had been given permission to expand.
I spent a week in that area in the  early sixties, then in sisty-six I spent a week in Plockton at an Army camp with the school. Climbing those bloody hills!
The one house I saw for sale on the internet was going for around half a mil!
I also saw that Harris Pye was involved in a fairly big job there in 2017, they did quite a bit of work on QE2 over the years.