I am not sure about the title of this page - should it not be Fairlie Boom Defence Depot?  There never was a boom there in the 1960s except for the makings of at least one stored at the depot.  By this time it was a NATO Boom Defence Depot having moved from Greenock adjacent to Princes Pier.  The main duty of the base was the maintenance of the various Admiralty (NATO) mooring buoys around the west coast.

There would have been no point in a boom here as the water is open at both ends.

Not only was there a Boom Defence (later Boom, Mooring & Salvage) Depot at Fairlie as described, but press releases before its construction spoke of "shallow water obstructions" to protect the approaches to the Clyde anchorage - along with a 40 foot pier - (it was clear later that this referred to the depth of water at the end of the pier). Certainly when the Depot was constructed, a line of piles covered the extensive areas of sand exposed at low water immediately south of Fairlie.

I agree that a single boom from Fairlie could not have adequately protected the anchorages in the Clyde, the main approach being between the Cumbraes and the Isle of Bute, but there is no evidence that the wherewithal for only one boom was to be located there. What does appear to be reasonable is that the "shallow water obstructions" actually built would have been of little use without a boom south of Fairlie.

This was the first project to be announced for the NATO "Clyde complex", which included POL depots at Campbeltown and Loch Striven, the armaments depot at Glen Douglas, and the extensive modernisation of RNAS Machrihanish (part of which was never started).

Passerby.