At the far end of Hunterston near the border of Fairlie is the deep sea port, it was built in 1976 as the Hunterston Ore Terminal and operated by British Steel to import and transport Iron Ore and Coal to Ravenscraig Steel works. It was chosen to build the deep port at this site due to the fact the River Clyde was deep enough to support the largest container ships in the world.

There are two large cranes connected to a 443 meter jetty and can unload 1,400 ton per hour per crane and transport the product via a conveyor to the 25 hectare storage area where it is then shovelled up with powerful machines then conveyed to the rail loader. More info on link to left.

In 1984 there was a miners strike and the Uk shut down and Hunterston became a focal point for demonstrations and all rail links to Ravenscraig was severed so it fell down to trucks to transport the ore and coal. This upset the miners and they did everything they could to block access to the trucks in and out of the site and at one point there was over 5000 demonstrators.

If you ever see the archived strike footage on tv Hunterston is always shown with the demonstrators and trucks clashing.

British steel disappeared not long after Ravenscraig closed down and a company called Corus took over but they failed to make Hunterston work for them so Clydeport bought them out and now operate the site as a coal import site.

This is a modified section, for full details on the port please visit the dedicated website at:  http://port.hunterston.eu
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