The Ballantines distillery in Dumbarton was the largest and tallest brick building in the area, apparently a brick by brick facsimille of the one in Canada. When looking at it from the castle it just dominates the area beyond the waste ground down by the River Leven. My mate and I would sit on the old dock down there and plan many moonlit ninja raids on the building using an ever increasing arsnel of small boats and grappling gear, masks and stuff.
As it turns out, our moonlit raid occured one night earlier this year as we were making out way back from the Elephant and Castle, our _Local_ and we stopped at the gate. I had walked by earlier that day and noticed that Tony could slip under the gate being the whippet he is and I could clamber over the top, the lardy ass that I am. And so, it was that night, vodka fuelling our interest we made our way in.
It was quite interesting in the grounds as you really don't know the full scale of the building until you are behind it and looking right up, it is huge. It was the perfect night for our exploring as the sky was clear and the moon was full, there were a couple of lights on and they helped a little.
Walking around the area took us ages and I think we left after 3am after unsuccessfully trying to find a way in that didn't mean pulling the plywood from one of the covered windows.
We played about on the weighbridge, it is worth noting that Tony wasn't heavy enough to register a reading on the bridge, but I was
Thankfully though, I am not the weight of a Whisky filled lorry.
We found a set of stairs and the discussion went like this:
ME: Look stairs.
Tony: Where do they go?
ME: (Deadpan) They go up...
On our second excursion in there we were joined by my brother, who was not exactly dressed for the trip wearing light colours. Sadly though, the roof of the building was the roosting place for seaguls and we were lucky to escape this time with our lives ( and our jackets crap free ).
Our third and final visit over the fence was pretty much a disaster, by this time, the demolision had well and truely started and we thought that we may be able to get inside the building this time. So again, vodka in our bellies tony and I climbed through the fence. We got up round the first corner and came across a guard hut. Sneeking underneeth the hut we could hear a tv and someone moving about, so we legged it.
It was escaping this time that I almost broke my ankle having to clamber down some rubble I slipped on some mud. Which wasn't much fun.
Sadly, all the times we went in was after the pub, unplanned and therefor we didn't have a camera with us. But I will try and take some external shots this weekend.