The Glen Douglas depot was built between 1962 and 1966 and is located near Arrochar
By Bill Heaney
The Ministry of Defence has applied for plans to demolish 16 buildings at a weapons store high in the hills between Loch Long and Loch Lomond.
DM Glen Douglas is a military munitions depot which was opened more than 60 years ago and which men from across West Dunbartonshire laboured to build in weather conditions that were often appalling.
Many of these labourers – often referred to as navvies or muck slaves – were from Dumbarton and Helensburgh and travelled to their work in the infamous Howards’ green buses.
I was one of them during the school holidays where we learned to handle a pick and shovel and even a “jack hammer”, an automatic drill, which men had often to lift above their head to drill into rock.
The Glen Douglas site covers 650 acres and has been considered the largest weapons storage site in Western Europe.
The MoD said there were “currently no plans to develop the land”.
They added that the buildings were being demolished as they had “exceeded their life expectancy” and were no longer in use.
The depot was built between 1962 and 1966 and is located near Arrochar, east of Loch Long, and above Loch Lomond, accessed from Luss.
It was created for NATO and has been used for munitions storage, but it is now only used by the MoD.
The RAF and British Army has also used the stores.
It has been used to store store ammunition for vessels at Faslane naval base and for surface ships via a jetty at Glenmallan.
Weapons, ammunition and explosives were transported to the site mainly by rail, road and sea.
The MoD said due to the sensitive nature of the site, the specific building numbers could not be shared.
* An application for planning permission to demolish part of the site is being considered by Argyll and Bute Council’s planning department.
