It’s 45 years since 4,000 people occupied Torness, East Lothian, as part of an incredibly vibrant campaign to oppose nuclear power in Scotland, a campaign which could be credited with helping to root Scottish independence in environmentalism: something of a miracle given the movement’s deep connection with “Scotland’s oil”. The plant eventually came on line just months after the Chernobyl disaster.

We went for a ramble past the behemoth on the coastal path and gave thanks that, with just five years of life left, this old beast hasn’t yet turned angry on Edinburgh, just 30 miles away.

Top photo and poster, right: SCRAM – Scottish Campaign to Resist the Nuclear Menace protests at Torness, 1970s-80s.

Below, video of my walk to Torness in September 2023.

Here’s to those who fought, and keep fighting!

“I pondered… how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.”
(William Morris, 1886)