altcar training camp

Altcar Training Camp is owned and managed by The North West of England & The Isle of Man Reserve Forces’ & Cadets’ Association (NW RFCA) as one of the UK’s premier facilities for small arms marksmanship training. The camp lies at the estuary mouth of the River Alt, towards the southern end of the Sefton Coast sand dune system, twelve miles north of Liverpool in the village of Hightown. The estate covers 620 acres of range and dry training areas, and 500 acres of beaches and sand dunes which are available for training when there is no live firing.

The site is used extensively by Regular, Reserve and Cadet units from all three Services, for both military and civilian activities and training.

Whilst our task at Altcar might initially appear to be quite simple, as it entailed the installation of just a single 12-core fibre optic cable across the site, the distance and nature of the route certainly make it worthy of record. Of the total distance of 800 metres, the first 250 metres from the cabinet in the source building was quite straightforward, via existing underground ducts, whereas the next 500 metres was achieved via eighteen overhead spans from pole-to-pole across the site to the destination building, with the added challenge of crossing the River Alt, a tributary of the River Mersey, between poles fourteen and fifteen along the way!