Monday, Sep. 26, 2005
The sandy bunkers of St. Andrews aren't the only tourist traps in the golf capital of Scotland. Just 14 km down the road, 30 m beneath a quaint stone farmhouse, is Scotland's Secret Bunker: the nuclear-proof headquarters for Scottish ministers, had the cold war got hot. Descend a gray metal staircase and down a 150-m, tungsten-reinforced tunnel to reach the bunker's red blastproof doors. From 1968 to 1992 these subterranean redoubts were manned by soldiers from the Royal Observer Corps; on guard today are uniformed mannequins, their lifelessness adding an apocalyptic chill to the air. It's like a musty James Bond film inside. Sixties teletypewriters, radar blips showing "hostile Soviet sorties" and air-raid target maps of the world (all donated by the Ministry of Defence) re-create the atmosphere of the atomic age. The mood shifts from the terrifying to the ridiculous in the onsite cinemas, where plummy BBC voices calmly instruct the nation on how to protect their homes against the big one. Sandbags, they proffer, would do nicely. Depressing? Not everyone thinks so. For $1,445 you can hire the licensed wedding venue to get hitched, but be warned: there could be fallout. Open seasonally, from Easter weekend to Oct. 31. tel: (44-1333) 310301;
www.secretbunker.co.uk
- Claire Smith
- Take a trip back to the Cold War era in Scotland's Secret Bunker
