Also known as RNTR Arrochar: Royal Naval Torpedo Range, Arrochar. I’ve been aware of this site for a few years … but just never stopped to have a proper look. When I discovered about the fire which burned parts of the buildings out in June 2007, I lost heart and forgot about it entirely. Until now. I’m glad that Pincheck and I made the effort to visit what remains, though, because it’s still a stunning place at dawn in wintertime, when the waters of the loch are mirrorlike …
This torpedo testing station at the head of Loch Long was built by McAlpines in the run-up to the Great War: work started in 1908 and it was handed over to the Admiralty in 1912. Its function was to support the Navy’s torpedo factories, by testing each new design as it underwent development. Originally an Admiralty facility, the range became the Royal Naval Torpedo Testing Station and Range, referred to variously as the Loch Long Torpedo Range and the Arrochar Torpedo Range. From 1936 to 1971, it worked in parallel with the RN Torpedo Factory at Alexandria. The Range played its biggest role during WWII: in 1944 approximately 12,500 torpedoes were fired down the loch, working out at almost 50 runs per day, on average.
Test firing was carried out from submarines, or from a modified vessel, the MV Sarepta, which was similar to a Clyde Puffer, with one exception … she had equipped with two underwater torpedo tubes fitted beneath the bow. This vessel is said have been built in Germany, and been sailed back to Scotland after World War 2 potentially as war reparations. A line of floating targets was moored in the loch, in line with the pier, forming a series of observation platforms. Torpedoes under test were built without warheads, and designed to float to the surface on completion of their test run, during which they were supposed to travel under the floating targets, rather than striking them. The raison d’etre was to check that they were capable of running straight and true. Testing is said to have included wire-guided torpedoes which spooled out a control wire as they ran, but locals tell of regular misses, and of test subjects occasionally leaving the water. Recovery is said to have been by an ex-RAF rescue craft, the Fulmar, and the unarmed torpedoes were returned to the station for analysis.
More history here … http://www.arrocharheritage.com/HistoryOfTheRange.htm
Arrochar helped to develop many different marks of torpedo, but one that didn’t succeed was the Mk12, which was fuelled with the explosive hydrogen peroxide (which also powered the Blue Streak ICBM). When the prototype Mk12 … wait for it … exploded at Arrochar, it was cancelled. However, many other electrically-powered torpedos were tested, and in fact the more modern types such as the Mk24, and Mk8 Mod 4, were only phased out in the 1990’s. The Range closed at the end of November 1986, thanks to the loch being suited to straight-running, shallow depth torpedoes, whereas the increasing use of more advanced designs, capable of running deeper, and using wire guidance to home in on a target meant that a different environment was needed. Torpedo testing was also carried out in huge water tanks at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, in nearby Glen Fruin, which are still very much in use, AFAIK.
The range buildings sat empty for many years, until work started in June 2007 to demolish the outbuildings, but the complex suffered an arson attack the next month. The now roofless shed and the main part of the building have tracks where torpedoes were stored and worked on: hoists on the first floor lowered the torpedoes into the tubes. The now burned-out control room at the top of the building, looking straight down the loch, housed a camera to record the torpedos’ tracks. Contrary to my preconceptions, the control room overlooking the loch wasn’t a replica of a submarine’s “bridge” – so that means it would have been difficult for a rogue torpedoman to fire off a volley of tinfish at a passing pleasure boat. Ah never mind … and because it was destroyed in the fire, we never got the chance to take in the view, either. Behind the control room, above the loading shed, was office accommodation.
The structure sitting out over the loch survives … for now.
This torpedo testing station at the head of Loch Long was built by McAlpines in the run-up to the Great War: work started in 1908 and it was handed over to the Admiralty in 1912. Its function was to support the Navy’s torpedo factories, by testing each new design as it underwent development. Originally an Admiralty facility, the range became the Royal Naval Torpedo Testing Station and Range, referred to variously as the Loch Long Torpedo Range and the Arrochar Torpedo Range. From 1936 to 1971, it worked in parallel with the RN Torpedo Factory at Alexandria. The Range played its biggest role during WWII: in 1944 approximately 12,500 torpedoes were fired down the loch, working out at almost 50 runs per day, on average.
Test firing was carried out from submarines, or from a modified vessel, the MV Sarepta, which was similar to a Clyde Puffer, with one exception … she had equipped with two underwater torpedo tubes fitted beneath the bow. This vessel is said have been built in Germany, and been sailed back to Scotland after World War 2 potentially as war reparations. A line of floating targets was moored in the loch, in line with the pier, forming a series of observation platforms. Torpedoes under test were built without warheads, and designed to float to the surface on completion of their test run, during which they were supposed to travel under the floating targets, rather than striking them. The raison d’etre was to check that they were capable of running straight and true. Testing is said to have included wire-guided torpedoes which spooled out a control wire as they ran, but locals tell of regular misses, and of test subjects occasionally leaving the water. Recovery is said to have been by an ex-RAF rescue craft, the Fulmar, and the unarmed torpedoes were returned to the station for analysis.
More history here … http://www.arrocharheritage.com/HistoryOfTheRange.htm
Arrochar helped to develop many different marks of torpedo, but one that didn’t succeed was the Mk12, which was fuelled with the explosive hydrogen peroxide (which also powered the Blue Streak ICBM). When the prototype Mk12 … wait for it … exploded at Arrochar, it was cancelled. However, many other electrically-powered torpedos were tested, and in fact the more modern types such as the Mk24, and Mk8 Mod 4, were only phased out in the 1990’s. The Range closed at the end of November 1986, thanks to the loch being suited to straight-running, shallow depth torpedoes, whereas the increasing use of more advanced designs, capable of running deeper, and using wire guidance to home in on a target meant that a different environment was needed. Torpedo testing was also carried out in huge water tanks at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, in nearby Glen Fruin, which are still very much in use, AFAIK.
The range buildings sat empty for many years, until work started in June 2007 to demolish the outbuildings, but the complex suffered an arson attack the next month. The now roofless shed and the main part of the building have tracks where torpedoes were stored and worked on: hoists on the first floor lowered the torpedoes into the tubes. The now burned-out control room at the top of the building, looking straight down the loch, housed a camera to record the torpedos’ tracks. Contrary to my preconceptions, the control room overlooking the loch wasn’t a replica of a submarine’s “bridge” – so that means it would have been difficult for a rogue torpedoman to fire off a volley of tinfish at a passing pleasure boat. Ah never mind … and because it was destroyed in the fire, we never got the chance to take in the view, either. Behind the control room, above the loading shed, was office accommodation.
The structure sitting out over the loch survives … for now.
