Inside the Corstorphine Bunker
The huge three-story underground operations centre.
This site was originally built in the 1940's as RAF Barnton Quarry and its' purpose was to disseminate information obtained from Radar stations throughout Scotland - in the defence against the Nazis.
Advances in radar technology rendered it effectively redundant in a fairly short time.
In the 1950's the bunker as we now know it was constructed, partly underground to be part of the UK's defence in the Cold War. It was located in a discrete location in a suburb of Edinburgh but was unknown to the locals.
Many rooms formed part of the complex but by far the biggest was the three-story operations centre.
The bunker had a staff of 100-150 personnel at that time and operated until it became a "Regional Seat of Government" (RSG) where, in time of crisis, political and military staff would be tasked with dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
Vital information on where nuclear fallout existed or was predicted came from the Royal Observer Corps (of which I was a member) who manned a network of very small underground cells and a few larger regional centres to gather and collate such information.
In 1963 the secret of "Regional Seats of Government" became widely known and the complex became untenable. It lay empty for years and was badly damaged by vandals.
Eventually, in recent times, a dedicated group of volunteers have been working on the immense task of slowly restoring the bunker complex to show visitors what it was like.
Such work is ongoing and will take a long time to complete. Conducted tours are available from www.barntonbunker.com/
Inside the Corstorphine Bunker
The huge three-story underground operations centre.
This site was originally built in the 1940's as RAF Barnton Quarry and its' purpose was to disseminate information obtained from Radar stations throughout Scotland - in the defence against the Nazis.
Advances in radar technology rendered it effectively redundant in a fairly short time.
In the 1950's the bunker as we now know it was constructed, partly underground to be part of the UK's defence in the Cold War. It was located in a discrete location in a suburb of Edinburgh but was unknown to the locals.
Many rooms formed part of the complex but by far the biggest was the three-story operations centre.
The bunker had a staff of 100-150 personnel at that time and operated until it became a "Regional Seat of Government" (RSG) where, in time of crisis, political and military staff would be tasked with dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
Vital information on where nuclear fallout existed or was predicted came from the Royal Observer Corps (of which I was a member) who manned a network of very small underground cells and a few larger regional centres to gather and collate such information.
In 1963 the secret of "Regional Seats of Government" became widely known and the complex became untenable. It lay empty for years and was badly damaged by vandals.
Eventually, in recent times, a dedicated group of volunteers have been working on the immense task of slowly restoring the bunker complex to show visitors what it was like.
Such work is ongoing and will take a long time to complete. Conducted tours are available from www.barntonbunker.com/