What is the big steel structure that has appeared in Leith?

A mysterious black and yellow structure appeared in the Port of Leith over the past few days before the winds of Storm Ophelia hit the Edinburgh area.

The structure is known as a windfarm jacket and is the sub-structure that supports and forms the base of what offshore wind turbines sit on.

It was constructed by Burntisland Fabrications Ltd in Methil and was originally intended for the Beatrice Wind Farm up in the Moray Firth but is currently on a barge in the Port of Leith for safe harbour from the wind.

A spokesperson for Forth Port said: “It’s one of the strengths of the Forth and the Tay estuaries for constructing stuff like that.

Structure at Leith Docks. Picture: Lisa Ferguson.

“What is currently going on by BiFab is the flexibility we have where in conditions like this we can take it not very far across the river to Leith, which is an enclosed port so it doesn’t suffer the same conditions that you would get out in the open river.

“It’s a part of the flexibility of things being constructed in and around the River Forth and indeed the Tay that we can do that.”