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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 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. History C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coulport (village)
Coulport ( - literally the Back Port or Ferry) is a village on the east side of Loch Long, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is north-north-west of Cove on the Rosneath peninsula. 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 wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trident Nuclear Programme
Trident, also known as the Trident nuclear programme or Trident nuclear deterrent, covers the development, procurement and operation of nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom and their means of delivery. Its purpose as stated by the Ministry of Defence is to "deter the most extreme threats to our national security and way of life, which cannot be done by other means". Trident is an operational system of four s armed with Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles, able to deliver thermonuclear warheads from multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). It is operated by the Royal Navy and based at Clyde Naval Base on the west coast of Scotland. At least one submarine is always on patrol to provide a continuous at-sea capability. Each one carries no more than eight missiles and forty warheads, although their capacity is higher. The missiles are manufactured in the United States, while the warheads are British. The British government initially negotiated with the Carter a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Polaris Programme
The United Kingdom's Polaris programme, officially named the British Naval Ballistic Missile System, provided its first submarine-based nuclear weapons system. Polaris was in service from 1968 to 1996. Polaris itself was an operational system of four ballistic missile submarines, each armed with 16 Polaris A-3 ballistic missiles. Each missile was able to deliver three ET.317 thermonuclear warheads. This configuration was later upgraded to carry two warheads hardened against the effects of radiation and nuclear electromagnetic pulse, along with a range of decoys. The British Polaris programme was announced in December 1962 following the Nassau Agreement between the US and the UK. The Polaris Sales Agreement provided the formal framework for cooperation. Construction of the submarines began in 1964, and the first patrol took place in June 1968. All four boats were operational in December 1969. They were operated by the Royal Navy, and based at Clyde Naval Base on Scotland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Naval Armaments Depot
A Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) is an armament depot (or a group of depots) dedicated to supplying the Royal Navy (as well as, at various times, the Royal Air Force, the British Army and foreign and Commonwealth forces). They were sister depots of Royal Naval Cordite Factories, Royal Naval Torpedo and Royal Naval Mine Depots. The only current RNAD is RNAD Coulport, which is the UK Strategic Weapon Facility for the nuclear-armed Trident Missile System; with many others being retained as tri-service 'Defence Munitions' sites. Historically, several of these depots played a key role in Britain's military history. In the early modern period, Britain's national defences were developed along different lines to those that emerged on the continent of Europe. Rather than focusing on having a large army and heavily fortified cities, England (and then Great Britain) built up its navy. In this period, Britain's principal ordnance stores were planned with ease of access for the Navy i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The Gardens has a wide variety of temperate and tropical flora, a herb garden, a chronological bed with plants arranged according to their introduction to Scotland, the UK's national collection of tree ferns, and a world rose garden officially opened in 2003 by Princess Tomohito of Mikasa. The River Kelvin runs along the north side of the Gardens and continues through Kelvingrove Park, the Kelvin walkway providing an uninterrupted walking route between the two green spaces. The Botanic Gardens was awarded a Green Flag Award in 2011. History In 1817 about 8 acres (32,000 m2) of land were laid out at Sandyford, near Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow (founded by Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth and Prof James Jeffray Professor of Botany at Glasgow University), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argyll And Bute
Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020). The administrative centre for the council area is in Lochgilphead at Kilmory Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival building and estate. The current council leader is Robin Currie, a councillor for Kintyre and the Islands. Description Argyll and Bute covers the second-largest administrative area of any Scottish council. The council area adjoins those of Highland, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire. Its border runs through Loch Lomond. The present council area was created in 1996, when it was carved out of the Strathclyde region, which was a two-tier local government region of 19 districts, created in 1975. Argyll and Bute merged the existing Argyll and Bute district and one ward of the Dumbarton district. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loch Long
Loch Long is a body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Sea Loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end. It measures approximately in length, with a width of between . The loch also has an arm, Loch Goil, on its western side. Although it is fairly long, its name actually comes from the Gaelic for "ship lake". Prior to their defeat at the Battle of Largs in 1263, Viking raiders sailed up Loch Long to Arrochar, and then dragged their longships 2 miles overland to Tarbet and into Loch Lomond. Being inland, the settlements around Loch Lomond were more vulnerable to attack. 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, in 1996 boundary redrawing meant that it moved wholly within the council area of Argyll and Bute. The steamboat ''Chancellor'' used to traverse the loch, departing Dunoon at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 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 2.2 GW undersea power cable to Flintshire Bridge, North Wales * Hunterston Terminal, the deep-water ore terminal and associated railhead built by British Steel * A construction yard, used to build oil platforms 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 dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMNB Clyde
His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It is the navy's headquarters in Scotland and is best known as the home of Britain's nuclear weapons, in the form of nuclear submarines armed with Trident missiles. History Faslane was first constructed and used as a base in the Second World War. During the 1960s, the British Government began negotiating the Polaris Sales Agreement with the United States regarding the purchase of a Polaris missile system to fire British-built nuclear weapons from five specially constructed submarines. In the end, only four were constructed; , , and . These four submarines were permanently based at Faslane. Faslane itself was chosen to host these vessels at the height of the Cold War because of its geographic position, which forms a bastion on the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faslane
His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It is the navy's headquarters in Scotland and is best known as the home of Britain's nuclear weapons, in the form of nuclear submarines armed with Trident missiles. History Faslane was first constructed and used as a base in the Second World War. During the 1960s, the British Government began negotiating the Polaris Sales Agreement with the United States regarding the purchase of a Polaris missile system to fire British-built nuclear weapons from five specially constructed submarines. In the end, only four were constructed; , , and . These four submarines were permanently based at Faslane. Faslane itself was chosen to host these vessels at the height of the Cold War because of its geographic position, which forms a bastion on the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is a United Kingdom Ministry of Defence research facility responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons. It is the successor to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) with its main site on the former RAF Aldermaston and has major facilities at Burghfield, Blacknest and RNAD Coulport. AWE plc, responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE, is owned by the Ministry of Defence and operated as a non-departmental public body. Until June 2021, AWE plc was owned by a consortium of Jacobs Engineering Group, Lockheed Martin UK and Serco through AWE Management Ltd, which held a 25‑year contract (until March 2025) to operate AWE, although all the sites remained owned by the Government of the United Kingdom which had a golden share in AWE plc. In November 2020, it was announced that the Ministry of Defence had triggered a contractual break point and would take ownership of AWE Plc in J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014 Scottish Independence Referendum
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side won with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the January 1910 general election, which was held before the introduction of universal suffrage. The Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013 set out the arrangements for the referendum and was passed by the Scottish Parliament in November 2013, following an agreement between the devolved Scottish government and the Government of the United Kingdom. The independence proposal required a simple majority to pass. All European Union (EU) or Commonwealth citizens residing in Scotland age 16 or over could vote, with some exceptions, which produced a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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