World record for longest ever echo shattered

The previous record-holding location was Hamilton Mausoleum where the sounds of the doors being slammed echoed for 15 seconds.

17:18 17 January 2014

The world record for the longest echo ever discovered has been shattered. The previous record-holder was the Hamilton Mausoleum in Scotland where the sounds of the doors being slammed echoed for 15 seconds.

This has now been smashed by the sound of a gun being shot in a hidden network of oil storage tanks in Rosshire, also in Scotland.

The site is a fuel depot constructed during World War II, where the sound of a pistol shooting resonated for a full 112 seconds. This was discovered by a professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford and author of Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound, Trevor Cox.

The Guinness World Records have already certified his findings.

Allan Kilpatrick, an archaeological investigator for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, fired a pistol loaded with blanks about a third of the way into the storage tank.

Prof Cox said: "It was like going underground into a Bond villain's lair. But never before had I heard such a rush of echoes and reverberation. I started off just playing around, whooping and hollering. The sound just goes on and on and on."

"Then when we fired the pistol my initial reaction was disbelief; the reverberation times were just too long. I knew immediately we had a new world record."