Fairlie Boom Depot

Fairlie boom depot was located at Fairlie, on the Ayrshire coast, during the 1960s.

The depot is more fully described as a NATO Boom Defence Depot, sited in an area which was once designated as a former NATO pier and moorings, and said to have been referred to as a salvage depot by the MoD. This agrees with information to the effect that the facility was later described as a Boom, Mooring and Salvage Depot.

The Fairlie depot is said to have been the first project to be announced for the NATO Clyde Complex, which included the Campbeltown Loch POL Depot, the Loch Striven POL Depot, the Glen Douglas Munitions Depot, and extensive modernisation of RAF Machrihanish.

Further information received has indicated that press releases made before construction began referred to "shallow water obstructions", to protect the approaches to the Clyde anchorage - along with a 40 foot pier - clearly a reference to the depth of water at the end of the pier. Once the depot was constructed, a line of piles covered the extensive areas of sand exposed at low water, immediately south of Fairlie.

Two quotations provide further confirmation, "...the NATO Boom Defence Depot in the 60s...". ^[1]

And, from a different section of the same site:

The other project was the construction of a NATO Boom Defence base, right next to Fairlie Pier. This, I think, was to be a base to provide a defence against any future enemy underwater boats from gaining access up the Firth of Clyde. The place was fully equipped to cope with an emergency, living quarters for permanent staff was provided for such an occasion. All the Boom Defence equipment was stored and maintained there, huge chain-link nets, outsize anchors, mooring buoys etc. and had new pier built to accommodate the Boom Defence vessels. The depot was built on land on which at one time were the engine sheds and sidings, as the Pier station had been the terminus for several years before the line was extended to Largs.

- A Very Ordinary Story, Chapter 9, From East to West � 1960-1979.^[2]

The site was acquired by Holt Leisure Limited in June 2003, and subsequently became Fairlie Quay Marina, which has been developed as a light industrial park, and facility for the storage and repair of yachts and motor boats.