Hunterston Terminal

Hunterston Terminal
View from Kaim Hill over the terminal, loop railway line and jetty, towards Great Cumbrae
Map
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Location
CountryUnited Kingdom
LocationFairlie, North Ayrshire, Scotland
Coordinates55°44′17″N 4°51′59″W / 55.73806°N 4.86639°W / 55.73806; -4.86639
Details
Opened1979
Operated byThe Peel Group

Hunterston Terminal, in North Ayrshire, Scotland, was an iron ore and coal-handling port located at Fairlie on the Firth of Clyde, operated by Clydeport which was taken over by The Peel Group in 2003. It lies south of Fairlie, adjacent to Hunterston estate, site of Hunterston Castle, and its jetty projects out approximately 1 mile (1.6 km), about midway into the channel between the mainland and the island of Great Cumbrae.

The port, completed in 1979, was originally called Hunterston Ore Terminal and was built to handle iron ore for British Steel Corporation's Ravenscraig steelworks. Existing facilities at General Terminus Quay on the upper River Clyde were unsuitable for increasingly large vessels. Hunterston, with its one-mile-long (1.6 km) jetty, was able to handle modern ships of any size, but was closed in 2016 and the site cleared in 2019.