Dalgety Bay, near Glasgow, is known for its beauty and wartime radioactive contamination that took years to resolve.
This town sits on the coast. Oddly, it’s the most radioactive UK town, yet it’s also praised as a well-kept small town. Residents enjoy beautiful coasts and green spaces.
Dalgety Bay became a town in the 1960s and was the first new town built privately. St Bridget’s church is a historic site where you can see towers and mansions. Fordell Castle and Donibristle are very romantic, and the Earls of Moray once lived there.
A song tells a story about the Earl of Moray. The song is “The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray,” telling of his death in 1592 when George Gordon killed James Stewart by the seaside.
The area was formerly an RAF base with a large aircraft depot. Part of the industrial estate sits on the old runway, and you can still see it today. Edinburgh Live reports this history.
Tennis courts sit on a hangar’s base, a hangar that repaired planes before. This activity caused a radioactive spot in Fife, which took over 30 years to fix.
Radium contaminated Dalgety Bay’s shore, originating from old warplanes. The public could not access the area from 2011 to 2023. Radium coated aircraft parts; people probably burned and dumped these parts.
Thousands of particles were found, posing a low health risk. Professor Dale leads Sepa’s team and said the work is important, helping Dalgety Bay and Scotland. They wanted a good resolution for the people whom the WWII contamination affected for years.