Arnish Fabrication Yard

I'm sitting here, fuming quietly, following the regional news bulletin at 4.54pm. The Arnish Fabrication Yard (the big building, which frequently features in my pictures) is to go into administration. The Yard, operated by a company called Camcal, ran into financial difficulties over the summer, in spite of having a healthy order book and going on a £20 million subsidy. The 100-strong workforce were laid off, the outstanding work was shipped overseas to be completed. (Only for the completed turbines to be washed overboard into the North Sea during a gale). Every week, the Stornoway Gazette blissfully announced that promising talks with prospective buyers were on-going and an announcement could be expected within 14 days. This has been going on since the summer.

The site is now going into administration, which means that creditors are not likely to be paid. The Yard has attracted much work from local businesses, which are going to be hit hard by this decision, as they are owed thousands. One has already gone under earlier this year. Very cynically, operators Camcal calmly announced that going into administration would make the Yard a much more attractive proposition for prospective buyers, as there would be no debts to pay off.