IT was 50 years ago this week that the Invergordon aluminium smelter began production, bringing new hope to the north of Scotland that industries could relocate and reverse the Highland Clearances of 18th and 19th centuries and the emigrations of the 20th century.

Situated in Easter Ross on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth, the town was once a small port with its own castle and was called Inverbreakie until the local baronet, Sir William Gordon of Embo, acquired the whole village in the 18th century and both rebuilt it and renamed it after himself.

Its harbour was built in 1828 and extended later. The Macleod family of Cadboll took over and developed the town and in the first years of the 20th century Invergordon became a major base for the Royal Navy. Invergordon played a very active role in both the First and Second World Wars and was the scene of the famous Mutiny of 1931 when Royal Naval personnel from the Atlantic Fleet went on strike when the British Government announced a pay cut – it was more of a strike than a mutiny as no ships were taken over by the sailors and no officers were harmed or even disrespected.

Despite its importance, Invergordon had a relatively quiet war from 1939 to 1945 – just one German bomb struck the town and it failed to explode. After the war, however, cuts meant the closure of Invergordon’s dockyard by 1956, and reduced to just a refuelling port, Invergordon needed new investment to survive. It came in 1959 with the start of Invergordon Distillery, one of the largest grain distilleries in Scotland, always associated with Whyte & Mackay.

Still more industrial investment was on the way. As far back as the 1890s, aluminium production had taken place in the Highlands where hydro-electricity provided the cheap power for the electrolytic process of extracting alumina from bauxite.

Cheap electricity was the sine qua non of aluminium production as smelters used vast amounts of electrical power. A cheap source was coming on stream in Britain with the building of nuclear power stations including Hunterston on the west coast of Scotland.

The UK had needed to import almost all of its aluminium, but the company British Aluminium had put together a plan in the 1960s to build three smelters and Harold Wilson’s Labour Government gave the go-ahead for Invergordon, Anglesey in Wales and Lynemouth in Northumberland.

A special contract was drawn up for Invergordon to use electricity from Hunterston and that deal signed in 1968 led to the construction of the smelter that began production on May 25, 1971, 50 years ago on Tuesday.

By that time British Aluminium had effectively been taken over by Reynolds Metals of the USA. It was a state of the art facility and many of 900 workers had been imported from the central belt after losing their jobs in docks and mines and they were soon matching outputs at world-leading plants.

Invergordon was doomed from the start, however. Over-production across the globe meant that its produce simply became unprofitable and remained so. It was estimated that by 1980, Invergordon was losing £1m a month, and British Aluminium told Secretary of State George Younger in October of that year that Invergordon would have to close.

In the months leading up to the closure, Scotland witnessed the shutting down of the British Steel plant at Glengarnock, Singer’s factory at Clydebank, the Talbot car factory at Linwood, Massey-Ferguson’s tractor plant at Kilmarnock, and the Wiggins Teape Corpach pulp mill at Fort William. There was already a massive feeling betrayal among Scots and Margaret Thatcher was personally blamed for all these huge blows to the Scottish economy.

She had made it clear from the outset of her career as Tory leader that there would be no more subsidies for failing British industries, but under persuasion from Younger, Thatcher tried to do a deal with British Aluminium.

It didn’t add up, and British Aluminium smelted the Iron Lady. On December 29, 1981, the closure was announced. The impact on the area was estimated to be in excess of 1500 jobs and an overnight unemployment rate of 20%. Younger expressed his own outrage but made it clear behind the scenes that Thatcher’s policies had hamstrung him.

Three weeks later on January 21, 1982, Bruce Millan, the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, took the Thatcher Government to task in the Commons. His motion said it all about the relationship, or lack of one, between the Tory Government and Scotland.

“That this House deplores the closure of the British Aluminium smelter at Invergordon as another devastating blow to the Scottish economy, condemns the failure of the Government to ensure the continued operation of the smelter, expresses its deep concern about the disastrous effects of the closure on the Highlands and its anxiety over the lack of assurances about the company’s operations elsewhere, and demands that every effort be made by the Government to have the smelter re-opened on a viable basis.”

The British Government and the various agencies in Scotland were sent to scour the world for another operator for Invergordon, but never found one. Younger had said the continued subsidy to keep the plant open would be £16m per year. He refused to say how much would be made available to any incoming proprietor.

North Sea oil would eventually came to the rescue of Invergordon and nearby Nigg became a major rig production centre.

But we all know what happened to that oil …