Grangemouth port celebrates golden anniversary

Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the first container vessel to call at Grangemouth, Scotland's largest port.

Grangemouth handles more than 155,000 containers each year. Picture: Peter Devlin

The Sea-Land freight service called at the Falkirk port on 7 May 1966 as part of its route transporting goods – mainly Scotch whisky – for onward travel to the US.

The weekly transatlantic route was the first to carry only containers and Grangemouth was the first UK port to handle goods in this way – over the past 50 years, the terminal has handled more than three million containers.

It now deals with more than £6 billion of goods each year, including food, paper, spirits, steel plate, timber and equipment for the oil and gas industry.

The port's first container shipment on 7 May 1966. Picture: Contributed

To celebrate the golden anniversary, Forth Ports is rebranding all its Scottish operations – Burntisland, Dundee, Grangemouth, Kirkcaldy, Leith, Methil and Rosyth – with help from Edinburgh-based agency Blood Creative.

Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond said: “We are excited about reaching this significant milestone in the history of the port.

“Over the past 50 years the port has changed and adapted to the changing needs of our customers and we are now Scotland’s largest container port and make a major contribution to the economy of Scotland. We look forward to continuing to play our part for Scotland in the next 50 years.”