Goodbye to Longannet

On the 9th December, before my visit to Manchester, James and I went on a trip near Falkirk to watch Longannet Chimney stack being demolished across the River Forth. Longannet Power Station was in service from the late 1960s until 2016, and most of it was demolished earlier this year. We have a personal connection to Longannet because James was the Station Accountant there for a couple of years in the 1990s.

The chimney stack was scheduled to be demolished at 9 a.m. so we set off in plenty of time. However three separate minor road accidents on the motorway delayed us and we ended up cutting it very fine. We arrived at the place James had selected just a few minutes before demolition, and not surprisingly the narrow lane was already lined with vehicles and people with cameras. James jumped out of the car with his camera to find a good viewpoint, and I drove slowly onwards to find a place to park. Just before 9 a.m. I noticed that the car behind me had stopped so I did too, and I wound down the window just in time to see the chimney come down. I also managed to film it on my phone. First of all a ring of smoke appeared round the middle of the chimney, and then it buckled and collapsed, as if in slow motion. 

I then noticed what I thought was a suitable parking space, so swung the front of the car round in order to reverse into it. But the lane was very narrow and one of my front tires went into the ditch of field that it bordered. I was completely stuck! How embarrassing, and also inconvenient for the rest of the drivers behind me, who had seen the chimney come down and were ready to drive away except that I was now blocking the lane. Luckily everyone was very pleasant to me, including the police who turned up to see what was causing the hold up. A helpful man attached a tow rope to the car and I was so relieved when James appeared to take the wheel when the car was finally pulled out of the ditch. With much thanks and apologies we drove away. 

James wasn’t really very angry at all, and we decided to go to see the nearby Scottish Kelpies; the giant metal statics of two horses’ heads which I have seen many times from the car on the M9. They are even more impressive close up, and were shining in the cold December sunshine. Even better, there is a lovely wee visitors’ centre where we had coffee and croissants before heading home.