Hundreds of unexploded bombs discovered across Scotland
HUNDREDS of unexploded munitions found in Scotland over the past three years have been described as “routine” by the Ministry of Defence.
Landmines, grenades and flares have all been recovered, including several in the city centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Among the ordnance found were several phosphorous flares, which burn at extremely high temperatures and can cause life-threatening injuries when activated.
A spokesman for the MoD said the high numbers of military stock had been collected “over several years and covers a large geographical area”.
The spokesman added that it represented a very small proportion of the number of tasks undertaken by Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams across the UK over the same period and stressed that this number of findings
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“would be considered routine”. The revelation that weapons including highly explosive mortars, grenades and two anti-aircraft rounds had been found by the public in Scotland, was revealed in a freedom of information request.
The data on military ordnance discovered over the last three years showed that several Mills No36 grenades had been found across the country from Irvine to St Andrews.
The army secretariat said that there were “up to 11 EOD operatives working in Scotland at any one time”.
Mills grenades were designed in Birmingham during the First World War and have a danger area of more than 100 yards when detonated. The weapon was the standard anti-personnel grenade of the British Army until retired from service in 1972.
Sam Nicholson, an operations manager from Leven Links golf course in Fife, said an unexploded grenade was “found right at the side of the fourth green, on the dunes between the beach and the golf course” on Sept 4.
He suspected a member of the public had picked up the munition, which had been washed up on the beach, to avoid it being found by a child or dog.
The grenade was destroyed on site by an EOD team, during which time the golf club had to close four of its holes.
Mr Nicholson reported that last year, “maybe six or seven” of the grenades were found by the sixth hole.
He said that the incidents didn’t worry him; rather, he finds it “interesting” that the area is “so rich in war history”.
The information comes as an unexploded torpedo from the First World War was found earlier this month in Scapa Flow, off the coast of Orkney, an area popular with divers given the number of war relics on the seabed after 50 German ships were sunk there.
Given the danger, an exclusion zone was set up and people were urged to stay at least 500 yards from the area.