76. Glen Douglas, Loch Long (NS 275 000)

HMS Ark Royal at Glen Mallan prior to the 2003 Iraq war

A Defence Munitions Centre. Although a NATO asset, the Ministry of Defence is the sole user of the depot. The Glen Douglas facility is substantial, covering 650 acres of land and employing 120 people. There are 56 storerooms built into the hillside, and a number of processing and engineering workshops. The main function of the munitions centre is the storage of a high volume of bombs, ammunition, explosives and pyrotechnics, mainly conventional weapons not the sophisticated weapons such as stored and produced at Beith [59]. Glen Douglas has storage capacity for almost 40,000 cubic metres of explosives and munitions are transported there by rail and sea with Royal Fleet Auxiliaries docking at Glen Mallen[77] on Loch Long. Glen Douglas also has a large fleet of lorries that travel up to 400,000 miles a year transporting munitions to bases across the UK.

The Glen Douglas facility is used regularly by the British Armed Forces to stock up on munitions before the start of conflicts. In January 2003, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal berthed at Glen Mallan[77] to collect munitions from Glen Douglas before heading for the Gulf and the war in Iraq. Two train drivers based in Motherwell refused to drive a freight train from Glasgow to Glen Douglas forcing the MoD to transport the cargo by road.

After the end of Operation Telic, Glen Douglas was used for returning unused munitions from Iraq. A total of 15,000 tonnes of munitions in 1,400 different shipping containers were channelled through the Glen Mallen jetty[77] and Glen Douglas Depot and then moved on to Defence Munitions depots at Longtown (near Carlisle) and Kineton in Warwickshire by road and rail.