During the 20th century many ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary berthed at the Oil Fuel Depot at Old Kilpatrick to load or discharge but almost certainly very few of the crews were aware of the Depot’s history
Old Kilpatrick is located on the north bank of the River Clyde, about ten miles downstream from Glasgow and in the immediate vicinity of the Erskine Bridge.
The Fuel Depot covered an area of 130 acres and had a storage capacity of over half a million tons of oil. A total of six ‘tank farms’ were widely spread and were divided by housing estates, main roads, railway lines and a canal.
A map showing the location of where the Old Kilpatrick Oil Fuel Depot was located on the banks of the River Clyde. The other ‘tank farms’ were in the vicinity
The Depot came into the oil business from just after World War One when approval was given to provide an Oil Fuel Installation on the River Clyde early in 1918 concurrently with the construction of a pipeline across Scotland to Grangemouth on the East coast. The provision of the pipeline – a distance of 36 miles – was one of these interesting propositions which at its inception could only be justified as a war time measure to maintain supplies for the Allied Navies on either side of Scotland. The selection of the route along the Forth/Clyde canal removed most of the difficulties as to way leaves, etc. At the time, this pipeline was one of the longest in Europe – certainly the longest laid as a military measure – and the task was completed as a joint effort between the United Kingdom and the United States. Whilst work on the pipeline was proceeding the foundations of the oil fuel depot were in hand with the erection of a deep water berth for tankers and a number of oil tanks.
The current remains of the Old Kilpatrick Deep Water Pier
Within the remarkably short period of seven months the jetty was completed and two 8,000 ton oil tanks were erected and full of oil. At this stage, ten other tanks were in various stages of construction and a large amount of work had been done in preparation of their foundations, constructing railways, retaining banks, housing, store accommodation etc.
Two of the three 1918 Worthington-Simpson pumps in No. 1 pump house
Similarly four 8,000 ton tanks with pipelines, pumps etc., had been constructed at Grangemouth on a site adjoining the existing wharfage and the whole project became operational in November 1918. Booster pumping stations were erected at Hungryside and Castlecary at strategic points between Old Kilpatrick and Grangemouth, for the purpose of assisting the oil along the pipeline in either direction.
During the Second World War the pipeline was extended a distance of 23 miles in a westerly direction from Old Kilpatrick to Finnart on the banks of Loch Long with a further booster pumping station at Auchendennan on the banks of Loch Lomond.
Finnart Oil Fuel Terminal
On completion this gave the facility to pump oil across the central belt of Scotland in either direction depending on the needs of the British and Allied Navies.
The Forth/Clyde pipeline was used extensively during the Second World War and then intermittently until the late fifties. Approval to abandon it was finally given in 1967. This decision was reached because of the age of the equipment, the cost of its upkeep and the fact that because more modern oil depots were then operating, there was no requirement to evacuate fuel from Old Kilpatrick in an emergency.
In the meantime, the Old Kilpatrick Depot had developed from its small complex of 12 tanks on one ‘tank farm’ adjacent to the River Clyde – known as Clydeside – to 6 ‘tank farms’ of 72 tanks – the additional farms being known as Dalnottar. Development which commenced in 1922 and was completed in a few years.
On 2 October 1939 the Luftwaffe took a photo of the Dalnottar and Clydeside Oil Fuel Depots revealing the small size of the protecting bunds and unprotected condition of the 72 tanks, with a volume of 708,000 tons, an ideal target for a major raid.
On the 13 October 1939 the Navy Works Department (as it was known then) began its epic struggle to give the Depot adequate protection before the threatened raid materialised.
The raid came, one of the severest the country received, on two successive nights, 13 and 14 March 1941, and the measure of success of the struggle was that despite 90 heavy H.E. bombs and countless incendiaries, there was no loss of life and only a small percentage of the tanks and oil were lost. The Depot never went out of action.
In a book ‘The Clydebank Blitz’ (published in 1974), I.M.M.MacPhail mentions the damage sustained by the site as a whole – “Three of the 70-80 Admiralty oil tanks at Dalnottar and Old Kilpatrick were bombed by the Luftwaffe and one of them was set on fire”. That tank was still burning on the second night of the Blitz, providing an easy target and ten more tanks were set on fire, eight of them at Dalnottar (i.e. the northern parts of the Fuel Depot, now built over) and the other two at Old Kilpatrick (i.e. the original area, nearer the Clyde).
The nature and scope of the work was to construct large bunds, sufficient in cross section to withstand the heaviest H.E. bomb, around the groups of the tanks, so as to form oil retaining saucers. The main saucers were further subdivided by subsidiary bunds along which the largest lorries could run. The purpose of the subsidiary bund was to limit the spread of oil in a main saucer and give access for fire fighting.
Another feature was the construction of probably the two largest moats in the country at the time, 680 feet long and 130 feet wide x 32 feet deep, connecting to the highest level main saucer by flame baffling ducts.
Other features were new drainage systems for water and oil together with the enclosing of a stream which ran through the Depot in a culvert, for practically the whole of its length. It is interesting to note that the only oil which escaped, got away down the stream via the unenclosed section, after surging over the bund which had not at that time been increased in size.
Another feature was the provision of a continuous hydrant main. This was initiated locally and was completed by July 1940 and was of the greatest consequence in extinguishing the fires, water being available throughout all areas.
The main difficulties were due to rain from October 1939 to March 1940 and within that period severe frost and heavy snow throughout February 1940. Only dense still boulder clay was available, which at times became so glutinous that it was impossible to get along the forming bunds.
Despite this, and the circumstances of the routes, an input of 8,000 cubic yards was attained in the March – June 1940 period and by that time 580,000 cubic yards had been placed and the bunds 97% completed.
The weather broke again in July 1940 and considerable delayed the trimming of the moat batters and auxiliary works, with the result that the Contractor was still on the site when the attacks came. This gave the Depot a large force of men and plant ready to deal with the effects of the raid.
In November 1940 the construction of a protective walling around the tanks was put in hand, the scheme being 4½ inch brick wall skin with the space between the tank and brick filled with concrete. The work was completed in August 1941.
During the war years 1939 -1945 operational activity at Old Kilpatrick was high and the following figures make interesting reading:-
(a) 3,500 vessels berthed on the jetty
(b) 13,200,000 tons of oil were received, stored and issued
(c) 4,000,000 tons of oil was pumped through the Forth/Clyde pipeline to Grangemouth
After the war, activity for naval purposes decreased considerably and the Admiralty entered into the lucrative business of hiring out storage to commercial oil companies. By the 1960’s 400,000 tons of storage space was out on hire to commercial firms and over 70 vessels were berthing on the jetty annually with a turnover of over 1,000,000 tons of oil per year. Over many years the Depot’s operational activity remained steady at over 90% on behalf of commercial firms and the annual gross income from such activities varied between £300,000 and £400,000. A naval depot being run at a profit is surely unique.
The storage of commercial oils in a depot not designed for such purposes had however many problems, not the least of which was the handling of the high viscous fuels used in the commercial world. Some such fuels ceased to flow at temperatures as high as 110°F and required to be heated in their storage tanks to temperatures up to 190°F before they could be moved to another tank or to a ship.
In December 1970 Old Kilpatrick Oil Fuel Depot came under the administration of the STO(N) joining the NATO POL Depots at Loch Striven, Campbeltown, Loch Ewe, Rosneath/Finnart and HM Oil Fuel Depots, Invergordon and Lyness.
The Old Kilpatrick Oil Fuel Depot finally closed in 1982 and its tanks and other facilities were then demolished over a period of years towards the end of the century.
About eighteen large fuel tanks once stood in this area, but their remains are now represented only by circular pools. This area of waste ground, formerly part of the fuel depot, is bounded on one side by the River Clyde, and on the other by, successively, a path, the dismantled railway line and the canal all of which run closely parallel to one another
An aerial view of the remains of the Old Kilpatrick Oil Fuel Depot in 2018
© BBC Glasgow acknowledged
Source – RNSTS Journal, the Secret Scotland web site together with additional material by a RFAHS member