Friday evening 4th June

Hello
 

Wednesday :

I visited Peterhead, Aberdeen and Stonehaven arriving at our campsite at Inverbervie about 4.30.

Very clean quiet site on the edge of the bay, I took Murphy for a walk along the bay and then relaxed in the sun reading my book until Simon arrived at about 6.30 after a 97 mile ride.

Thursday :

Drove to Montrose, Arbroath and skirted Dundee, across the Tay Bridge and made my way to St. Andrews.

Nice Town with some great old ruins  but one campsite was full and the other didn't want dogs (even little ones) so I went inland to Straithkiness where i found a CL 5 camper site unfortunately no showers or toilets but we managed.

Friday :

I was making my way to Crail so as to keep to the coast when I saw a sign for "Scotlands Secret Bunker" , this sounded interesting so I made a detour to the site and other than a few military vehicles there was only a large Bungalow.

This site was the main Nuclear War Bunker for Scotland used in the 50s & 60s when the threat of a Nuclear war was a real possibility, there was room for maybe 2 or 3 hundred people to live for many weeks if the threat from Russia became a reality.

I went inside, paid my entrance fee, picked up an audio device, went through a door and down a staircase to a long tunnel about 7 ft square which sloped downwards for about 100 yards, the walls were 10 ft thick with steel reinforcing.

At the end where 2 steel doors weighing 3 tons between them, on through to the main coridor with many rooms each side, I visited about 20 rooms they were exactly as they where when the site was fully manned but instead of real people each room had Mannekins ?? dressed in uniforms.

Down another staircase to all the operations rooms, full of Computers and other electronic bits and pieces (looking very dated ) and the room where the top brass would give the order to return fire etc.

In the theatre a b&w film from the 50s was playing giving people instructions on what to do, how to build a shelter etc.

The BBC had a broadcast room being the only place they would broadcast from.

The audio device I carried with me gave a detailed account of each room and the history of the place.

On leaving the site and only seeing a bungalow it was hard to believe that underneath was a mass of rooms including Dining room, Dormitories and a massive power plant.

It got me thinking how many other places are there underground, there could even be a whole town.

Well worth a visit.

I drove along the coast to Crail, Leven, Kirkcaldy and across the Forth road bridge to Mortonhall on the edge of Edinburgh. Lovely site, short grass, lots of trees and good facilities, we are staying here Sat. evening as well.

Simon & I are going into Edinburgh now so I will let you know how we get on in the next blog.

All for now

Phil