On 26th August 2026 Maria & I visited the Forth Ports marshalling yard at Leith! We’re very grateful to Forth Ports and Inch Cape for allowing us an insight into their work and to get closer to the towers than we’ve ever been before!
Our goal for the visit was to get a better sense of scale (see: scale), as this was the main thing which we found puzzling. We had done some googling so we knew how tall the towers were, but it was still hard to imagine or put into any kind of perspective.
On the day, we visited alongside a group of marine architecture & engineering researchers from University of Strathclyde. It was fascinating to be there with experts in the field, as Maria and I have no knowledge of engineering, just a keen interest in finding out more about what’s happening at the marshalling yard, and with the striking and very visible yellow towers specifically. We brought a SLR camera and sketchpads.
After an interesting presentation from Inch Cape and Forth Ports, we were given PPE and led out to the jackets and pin piles. As we stood under the towers, I asked Maria how she felt, and she said she still couldn’t tell how big they were. And it really still was difficult to take in the height of the jackets. I wasn’t sure how far we could wander, but then Ewan from Forth Ports encouraged us to walk all the way to the retaining wall as we’d have a good view of Inchkeith from there (which, of course, had been the subject of one of Maria’s previous comics projects). So we walked under one of the jackets, and out the other side to where pin piles were propped up.
One of the researchers saw us approach the pin piles and told us that they make a great noise when you shout into them, so we did just that and it really did make a great noise.
Thanks so much to Forth Ports and Inch Cape for letting us visit! It was a wonderful experience.
Christina Neuwirth