Nuclear Bunkers

[trout]

Heya,

 

heres a Link to documentation regarding the nuclear bunker at Saxa Vord, Unst.

 

There are rumours of others in Shetland built during the Cold War - anyone have hard evidence regarding them?

[peeriebryan]

Interesting link Trout. I'll hae a right swatch when I get a minute

 

I'm not sure how much I can say, but a company I worked for had to do some routine maintenance on the nuclear bunkers exteriors around Shetland and the workers had to sign the official secrets act

 

Their's one up the Old North Road, behind the quarry and one up a peerie road on the West side of the Lang Cames

 

I may now have to be shot!

[trout]

The best comment is:

 

... the radar station holds the unofficial British record for wind speed, which in 1962 was recorded at 177 mph; just before the measuring equipment blew away.

 

Interesting link Trout. I'll hae a right swatch when I get a minute

 

I'm not sure how much I can say, but a company I worked for had to do some routine maintenance on the nuclear bunkers exteriors around Shetland and the workers had to sign the official secrets act

 

Their's one up the Old North Road, behind the quarry and one up a peerie road on the West side of the Lang Cames

 

I may now have to be shot!

 

Thats very interesting .. I've heard joking rumour of one under the town hall - but more seriously one somewhere between Voe and Mossbank?

[Njugle]

This is really spooky, i was talking to someone about this just the other day. There is a statistic about how many miles there is between bunkers throughout the UK, going by which there should be several in Shetland. I'd never heard of any and speculated on Saxa vord.

 

There was a guy from London i met many years ago who had first come to Sheland to do work at Saxa vord who told me his firm were tunneling experts, who had done a bunker up in Faroe which included a tunnel extending right across a voe to the other side, and seemed to be alluding to some sort of comparison with Saxa vord without actually breaking his secrecy oath. I had always wondered what the reality was.

 

By the way PB, your secrecy crime is tantamount to treason. Watch oot! 8O

[sammy]

Can you give any more details about the one behind the quarry (how big? is there anything in it?). I used to spend entire summers playing around there when I was peerie and never noticed anything odd, although there is that strange little concrete hut with the back wall missing.

 

I’ve heard of a few secret bunkers around Shetland. People talked about the one at Njugelswater in a previous post. I’ve been told this was to be used to house a home guard sabotage squad if the Germans invaded. The plan being they would sneak out at night and blow turd up. There’s loads of them all over the UK. I’ve also heard of the bunker up around the back of Voe somewhere. I presumed this to be from World War 2 as well.

[Muppet]

The Royal Observer corps had a number of bunkers in Shetland till they were disbanded maybe 10 or so years ago.

 

One is the one peeriebryan reffered to at the Staney hill, one somewhere is Voe, Sumburgh and I think the other I knew about could have been Unst.

 

It's not all that long since I was at the one in the Staney Hill, I would imagine theyre all still surviving.

 

The idea was that in the event of a nuclear blast the Corps members would monitor the situation from the safety of the bunker.

[sammy]

I'm assuming they are all underground

[Muppet]

Can you give any more details about the one behind the quarry (how big? is there anything in it?).

 

Theres not much to see from the surface.

 

My memory is a bit sketchy, so might well be out with the details, but if you head into MK Leslies quarry, there should be a track on the right heading up the hill (used to lead to an old dump before rova Head was on the go) Go up that track and the bunker is on the right hand side maybe about 10 metres or so off it, and before you come to the brow of the hill. I cant remember just how far up.

 

I think it was just a concrete cube between 1 and 2 meters square and less than a metre high with hatch on the top. Pretty sure there are some vent pipes around it too. If the hatch can open, you get access into the bunker by climbing down a vertical ladder from it. I would think the lid would have been secured though.

 

I was in the bunker when it was in use and seem to remember there were a couple of rooms, one used for sleeping. It wasnt particularly big though.

[peeriebryan]

^You're right enough Muppet. That's the one I'm thinking of

 

We got shifted by the police a few times while sitting in cars up there. The police always refused to give us any kind of reason but insisted we move on. We always assumed it was something to do with the bunker

[sammy]

That makes more sense. I thought you meant the quarry up from Clickimin

[trout]

From having a conversation there with a good 'source' of info on the subject there is definetly one at the upper side of Dales Lees. This was apparently one of the "Civil Defence" bunkers.

 

The Sumburgh one talked about must definetly be on top of Mossy Hill? The Mossy Hill station was quite a station in its day, what with being part of the NATO Ace High programme.

 

VHF could quite easily from Mossy Hill reach down to Orkney - so keeping with Njugles posting regarding set distances between bunkers, i.e. keeping a communications link between each bunker.

[HacksawDuggan]

I'm not sure how much I can say, but a company I worked for had to do some routine maintenance on the nuclear bunkers exteriors around Shetland and the workers had to sign the official secrets act

 

 

 

wis dis strimming the girse fae around the hatch?!!

[peeriebryan]

I'm not sure how much I can say, but a company I worked for had to do some routine maintenance on the nuclear bunkers exteriors around Shetland and the workers had to sign the official secrets act

 

wis dis strimming the girse fae around the hatch?!!

I've said too much already!

[Muppet]

Are any ex ROC members on here to enlighten us more? They're probably bound by the official secrets act too!

 

I seem to remember something about a unit in Walls too, but I could be wrong.

[Ghostrider]

The Sumburgh one talked about must definetly be on top of Mossy Hill? The Mossy Hill station was quite a station in its day, what with being part of the NATO Ace High programme.

 

What may or may not remain on Mossy Hill now, I don't know, I've not been up there since Royal Signals abandoned it. The ROC bunker however, unless my memory is more shot than I know it is, was on the next hill southwards. (No names, no pack drill....and I won't need to be shot....yet! But, think west of Ratchie).