Taking the Dublin - Holyhead ferry gave me the perfect opportunity to swing by the remains of Octel's Bromine works a Amlwch. Despite closure in 2004 this pretty remote plant seems to have escaped much 'urbex' activity in the past. I personally had written it off as totally demolished but luckily for us a few weeks after booking our ferry some facebook goons decided to tout it around as a 'secret location'.. I must admit it took me about a day to realise exactly where it was, so not the worst code name ever, but as always, totally useless as they all are in the end! (You could say my visit was 'uninvited' i guess 
)
Arriving early morning accessing the site was fairly simple, there appeared to be a security presence near the old canteen and admin building but they were far from active, you could probably sneek into those and finish the job if you fancied it! The site reminded me a lot of the now slightly legendary Steetley plant but with much more left to see and in a much nicer location. It even had its own little private beach to go for a paddle! We started with a poke about in the old labs and workshops before moving onto the two sea water pump houses and 'blowing out towers'. Quite why these buildings were spared demo im not too sure but im glad they were, it was an enjoyable mooch round a largely unseen site. A good way to end a good trip!
http://www.octelamlwch.co.uk/ has plenty of information on the sites history and uses. Essentially they extracted Bromine from sea water. The majority was then reacted with Eythelene to produced an 'anti knock' fuel additive used in leaded petrol. I suspect the banning of lead in fuel didn't do to well for the sites profitability!
)Arriving early morning accessing the site was fairly simple, there appeared to be a security presence near the old canteen and admin building but they were far from active, you could probably sneek into those and finish the job if you fancied it! The site reminded me a lot of the now slightly legendary Steetley plant but with much more left to see and in a much nicer location. It even had its own little private beach to go for a paddle! We started with a poke about in the old labs and workshops before moving onto the two sea water pump houses and 'blowing out towers'. Quite why these buildings were spared demo im not too sure but im glad they were, it was an enjoyable mooch round a largely unseen site. A good way to end a good trip!
http://www.octelamlwch.co.uk/ has plenty of information on the sites history and uses. Essentially they extracted Bromine from sea water. The majority was then reacted with Eythelene to produced an 'anti knock' fuel additive used in leaded petrol. I suspect the banning of lead in fuel didn't do to well for the sites profitability!
Site Map
Lab Building
Workshops
Lab Building
Workshops
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