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All the United Kingdom Scotland Highland Oil Rig Graveyard
AO Edited

Oil Rig Graveyard

Where the sleeping monsters of Scotland's oil industry are left to rust.

Highland, Scotland

Added By
Dylan Thuras
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CAPTION
Abandoned oil rigs.   Michael Elleray/CC BY 2.0
Oil rigs abandoned in Cromarty Firth.   John Allan/CC BY-SA 2.0
An abandoned oil rig with others in the background.   Steven Straiton/CC BY 2.0
Oil rigs in Cromarty Firth.   Andrewrpalmer/CC BY-SA 3.0
  djdalgleish / Atlas Obscura User
One if the oil rigs at dusk   katielou106 / Atlas Obscura User
  rbenn250 / Atlas Obscura User
One of the stored oil rigs   katielou106 / Atlas Obscura User
  unimoggers / Atlas Obscura User
May 2023   alittlebrowndog / Atlas Obscura User
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In the picturesque Cromarty Firth, where dolphins can be seen leaping between blue-gray waves, giants of twisted metal sit waiting to be used.

The price of crude oil is steadily declining and in Scotland as in many other countries, this means the abandonment of oil rigs. To disassemble the machines is not just costly, it also might prove to be a mistake should the market rise again. So the massive rigs, weighing around a thousand tons each, are towed into the Cromarty Firth from the North Sea. Here they will pile up and rust until the economy turns its favor toward crude oil again. Many Scots hope for this, particularly those in areas supported by the drilling industries.

These rusting rigs are a symbol of what many say is the end of Scotland's oil industry, a looming harbinger of unemployment in communities that have depended on the oil industry for decades. But port authority CEO Bob Buskin doesn't refer to Cromarty Firth as a graveyard but rather as a parking lot, indicating his belief that the situation will change.

Related Tags

Industrial Graveyards Abandoned Cemeteries

Know Before You Go

From northbound A9 near Culbokie, follow B9163 toward Cromarty until the left turn to "the old store, ferryton point." There are numerous points along this scenic drive to see the rigs. Cromarty is at the end of the Black Isle, where they can all be viewed, as well as a maintenance facility and tender vessels.

Also nearby is the Munlochy Clootie Well, about 12 miles to the south, on the southern shore of the Black Isle.

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Community Contributors

Added By

Dylan

Edited By

hrnick, Molly McBride Jacobson, rugby007, kelliewalton...

  • hrnick
  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • rugby007
  • kelliewalton
  • djdalgleish
  • rbenn250
  • katielou106
  • unimoggers
  • alittlebrowndog
  • ballyboy78

Published

September 8, 2016

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromarty_Firth
  • http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3410415/The-oil-rig-graveyard-dozen-thousand-tonne-structures-parked-unused-Scottish-firth-market-swamped-cheap-crude-demand-drilling-drops.html
  • http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/business-consumer/ghost-rigs-cromarty-firth-show-7267045
Oil Rig Graveyard
B9163
Highland, Scotland
United Kingdom
57.687738, -4.11392
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