Scotland's Secret Bunker

Hidden beneath an innocent Scottish farmhouse (as these things always seem to be) is a tunnel that leads to Scotland’s Secret Bunker: 24,000 square feet of accommodation. Kept secret for over 40 years (much like the Burlington Bunker in England), the bunker is split into two levels, each the size of two football pitches, one stacked on top of another and 100 feet underground.

Had there been a nuclear war, this is where Scotland would have been governed from. The Bunker was part of the ROTOR system of bunkers around the UK, the first one being designed in 1949. The ROTOR project was an enormous effort to update Britain’s radar cover after WW2. It consisted of many sites with huge underground bunkers to withstand conventional bombing. Many of these sites were taken over when they became obsolete in their radar role as refuge for local governments.

The bunker is now a museum of cold war artifacts, but each room should be taken with a pinch of salt, as most of the stuff is recreated and often slightly inaccurate. There is a superb collection of military vehicles from around the world and the UK’s only Russian anti-aircraft missile. There’s also a display of Nazi memorabilia for unclear reasons.