Eastriggs Munitions Depot, Dumfriesshire

An expanse of land on the Solway Coast was once part of the world's biggest factory.

Later it was a depot forming part of Britain's largest ammunition storage facility, some of which is still in use. This depot was mothballed in 2011.

The nine-mile site was built during World War One. Less than a year into the war, Allied troops on the Western Front faced a shortage of artillery shells. The situation led to what became known as the Shell Crisis of 1915 and the fall of the Asquith government.

A new coalition government set up a Ministry of Munitions to gear the whole economy towards the war effort. HM Factory Gretna, according to Arthur Conan Doyle, was "the newest, the largest, and the most remarkable" of the forty new munitions factories in Britain. Its sole aim was to make cordite propellant, which fired soldiers' bullets and shells.

The complex covered the English-Scottish border from Dornock to Longtown.

Maps courtesy The Devil's Porridge museum

Gretna and Eastriggs townships were built by 10,000 Irish navvies to accommodate the over 16,000 mainly female workers who would work shifts in the factories. The dangerous work went on 24 hours a day to ensure a constant supply of munitions to the front line.

Eastriggs was site 3, where the chemical processes took place to make the explosive paste, nicknamed the Devil's Porridge, to be sent to Mossband (site 2) to create cordite.

After the war the sites were sold off, only to be needed again in World War 2 for the storage and distribution of explosives.

Following that war, the Eastriggs facility became part of DSDA (Defence Storage and Distribution Agency) Longtown, housing 63 Explosive Storehouses.

In 2011 the site was mothballed, and the explosive materials transferred to Longtown.

The reception area has buildings dating back to the First World War.

More wartime buildings remain further into the site.

Much of the 25 miles of narrow-gauge railway track was removed in 2016 by a Worksop firm and sold to projects ranging from heritage tourism in London to a sugar cane plantation in Puerto Rico.

Elsewhere more modern buildings remain sealed, with the site left for nature to enjoy.

There's been hope the place could be developed, perhaps as a visitor centre or for nature tourism. However, the remote location and fears about contamination mean that for now, it remains undisturbed.