In Abandoned, Europe / By Tom / 2 September 2015

(Image: Andrew Macpherson)

Scotland’s rugged Mull of Kintyre is an isolated peninsula steeped in history. An ancient landbridge thought to have been used by early humans migrating from continental Europe to Ireland, the Northern Irish coastlines of counties Antrim and Ulster are clearly visible. Today, the Kintyre peninsula remains an enigmatic place, with a rich heritage spanning millennia. More recently, the former RAF and Fleet Air Arm airfield at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown, was said to have been used by shadowy military aircraft during the eighties and nineties, while Avro Vulcan XL427 met its end there. To the west, the nearby headland at Uisaed Point exhibits an unusual series of abandoned concrete installations overlooking the Irish Sea.

Secret Scotland details the history of the mysterious foundations, which once formed the base of the Machrihanish Radio Station, an experimental transatlantic communications system in use from December 1905 to December 1906. The facility is understood to have been backed by the National Electric Signalling Company of Washington (NESCO), in the United States, and twinned with a similar installation at Brant Rock, Massachusetts developed by Canadian inventor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden.

(Image: Photobucket via Secret Scotland)

According to a 1905 report by the Campbeltown Courier:

The station stands about 450 feet high, being 50 feet higher than at first estimated. It looks like a badly proportioned chimneystack, having a cap-like arrangement on top all bristling with huge spikes. The whole ground within the boundaries is covered with a network of wires, laid grid fashion in trenches and covered only with some earth, and the ends of the wire are led into a deep trench along the shore at sea level. There are a few houses for the accommodation of the staff. The secrets of the station are being well preserved. The ground is fenced off and no visitors are allowed within the enclosure.

But the Machrihanish Radio Station was destined to be short-lived. Initially successful, transaltantic communications which relied on Morse Code radiotelegraphy were soon lost. It would be three weeks before the signal was reestablished, following the dispatch of an engineer from North America. But trouble returned in December 1906 when high winds caused the guy-wires to snap and the station’s mast collapsed to the ground.

(Image: Andrew Macpherson)

Unlike the Brant Rock facility, an inspection revealed that the supporting guy-wires had not been properly installed by the Brown Hoisting Company of Cleveland. Indeed, the Machrihanish radio mast had been lucky to survive for as long as it did. According to Secret Scotland, a subcontractor was blamed for the tower’s failure.

Today, the abandoned concrete blocks at Uisaed Point are all that remain of the Machrihanish Radio Station, relics of a compelling project in the history of telecommunications, and a fascinating modern ruin on the west side of the Mull of Kintyre.

Related – Ruined Spy Bases: 10 Abandoned Radar & Early Warning Stations of the World