Site Records

Inchindown Fuel Depot - Main Portal

This is the Main (South) Portal. There is another portal a couple of hundred yards North, but it is much smaller. Much to my surprise, on my first visit it was unlocked; there was a padlock but the ironwork of the gate was damaged and it was possible to simply lift the padlock off. It has now been fitted with a very secure Abus padlock; there have been several break-ins, the owner believes possibly by people hoping to scrounge scrap metal there. In point of fact there's nothing worth stealing, even as scrap.

The Main (South) Portal. The small concrete structure in the upper left is the 'vent shaft' shown on the OS map:

Closer view of the vent shaft:

Looking down the vent shaft - just a small horizontal duct leading off that the bottom. Presumably this structure had a roof at some time:

The view back out from the main portal - in the distance, the Black Isle and Cromarty Firth just visible through the trees:

A few minutes fiddling with the padlock and the gate is open; the main portal beckons:

The view immediately through the gate:

Looking back out to daylight. Electrical switchgear on the wall, and a door through to a small chamber:

The small chamber is pretty bare - just a piece of motor-driven machinery on the floor - probably a fan, connected to the vent shaft mentioned previously:

Looking back out from a little further down the tunnel. Manholes in the floor, and protruding objects which I took to be valves:

Looking back from even further down the tunnel. It's a still very clean-looking concrete-lined tunnel:

There are occasional courses of brickwork along the tunnel, as shown below. What are they for? Well, if you look at the concrete in the roof above the brickwork you'll see it's pocked with small regular holes. I think it's something to do with seepage water - to allow small amounts of water to seep into the tunnel, rather than be sealed behind the concrete and building up a high, possibly dangerous hydrostatic pressure. Thoughts anyone?:

Some diligent 'Catfording' (running around like a bad mastard and setting off the flashgun repeatedly) clearly shows the length of the main tunnel. You can just make out how it ends, in a bend:

Reaching the bend and looking back, daylight visible *through* the 'ghost image' of the photographer (more Catfording). It's a very gentle bend, the tunnel swings through maybe 20 or 30 degrees:

Looking back out to daylight, from the bend in the tunnel:

What's round the bend? More tunnel, with six access chambers to the six oil tanks. In the superbly-Catforded photo below, you can see the full length of the tank access tunnel, and the open doors to the tank chambers:

Looking back to the bend from the vicinity of the second tank. Door to first tank is visible, open:

Approaching the end of the tunnel, with the door to the sixth and final tank open:

The end. The face at the end of the tunnel is the only unlined rock in this section. The door to the tank access chamber is open, and we're about to explore it:

Looking through the door. A small chamber with a ladder, and a winch or windlass of some kind:

Beyond the winch, the end of the tank, with two pipes emerging, and a valve:

The chamber is small but high. That ladder goes up and up; the object on the left wall is a gauge to show the level of oil in the tank. it reads to 40 feet, so that's the height of the tank:

Yep, looks like around 40 feet to me. That ladder goes a long way up. Don't know what's at the top - that's the only part of the complex I didn't explore on this trip. Was on my own, didn't fancy a 40ft rusty ladder with no lifeline and no 'safety man', thanks very much. You can just make out a beam at the top of the shaft - presumably this was used in conjunction with the winch to hoist material to the top of the shaft.

The other five tank access chambers are identical to this one:

Finally, a look back from the end, loking back down the tank access gallery. This concludes our exploration of the main portal and the tunnel that runs from it:

Words and images © 2006 Michael J. Ross