Beauforts Dyke

Beauforts Dyke is a deep sea trench located in the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and Scotland within the North Channel. Because of its depth and its proximity to the Cairnryan military port, Beaufort's Dyke became the United Kingdom's largest offshore dump site for surplus conventional and chemical munitions after the Second World War: it had been used for the purpose since the early 20th century. The Ministry of Defence has estimated that well over a million tons of munitions have been dumped there,^[4] including 14,500 tons of 5-inch (130-millimetre) artillery rockets filled with phosgene dumped in July 1945.

Fellows have historically and are currently providing UXO support for assessment and mitigation for deep sea maritime operations in this area.

After the Second World War significant amounts of surplus and obsolescent munitions were dumped at sea. This included conventional as well as chemical weapons. Sea dumping of chemical weapons from Cairnryan commenced on 23 July 1945. Dumping was carried out using Landing Craft Tank (LCT) and the War Department steamer SS Sir Evelyn Wood. A further indication of the scale of dumping can be seen using the record of dumping of Chemical Weapons at sea from Cairnryan in August 1945. This is detailed as comprising of 4,979 tons of ammunition dumped at sea.

Conventional munitions were also dumped during the immediate post war period. Examples of munitions included were 3" Unrotated High Explosive Rocket warheads and 29mm HE Spigot bombs.