Beaufort's Dyke
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Beaufort's Dyke is the sea trench between Northern Ireland and Scotland within the North Channel.
The dyke is 50 km long and 3.5 km wide. Due to its depth (200-300 metres) and its proximity to a suitable port (Cairnryan), it became the the United Kingdom's largest offshore dump site for conventional and chemical munitions after the Second World War. Some of these have subsequently been washed up on beaches in the area.
14,500 tons of 5 inch artillery rockets filled with phosgene were dumped in Beaufort's Dyke in July 1945. [1]
In 1995 incendiary devices were discovered on the Scottish and Northern Irish coasts. This coincided with the laying of the Scottish Northern Ireland Pipeline (SNIP), a 24 inch gas interconnector being constructed by British Gas.
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