More UXO Found on Ynyslas Beach as EOD Team Disposes of 3No. Items
Controlled explosions have taken place at Ynyslas Beach, Ceredigion after an item of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) was found by a member of the public. Having been alerted by the Coastguard of the find, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) arrived at the beach and quickly found 2No. more pieces of UXO. After erecting an exclusion zone, they carried out the safe detonations.
This is certainly not the first time that UXO has been found at the beach. During WWII, Ynyslas was used as an important military research base (the Ministry of Supply Experimental Establishment Anti-Aircraft), testing rockets with different fuels. The facilities were associated with the Liquid Oxygen and Petroleum Guided Anti-Aircraft Projectile (LOPGAP) project. The foreshore was marked out with a target grid and impacts recorded.
Post-WWII, the military facilities for rocket testing were continued under the Air Ministry, largely testing rocket fuels. The facility closed in late 1946, when the tests were transferred to Aberporth.
There are also records that munitions were dumped at sea off Ynyslas beach in 1954 when the range was decommissioned. Items of UXO have been encountered on the beach frequently ever since, with EOD teams mobilised in 2008 and 2010 to dispose of live shells, more recently in 2016 after children propped up a piece of ordnance to use in a game.
