Once luxurious bunker built to save the Royal Family from nuclear attack now left to rot – and you can visit
A FORGOTTEN bunker built to save the Royal Family from a nuclear attack is open to visitors.
Decades ago, the bunker was built 100 feet below the ground in the event of catastrophic warfare breaking out.
The historic site in Barnton Quarry, near Edinburgh, was built in the 1950s in the midst of fear of Soviet power - and remained a secret until the 1980s.
The UK Government put plans in place to keep high-ranking officials and the Royal Family safe at Barnton bunker if their worst fears became reality.
Deep underground, just four miles from the capital, it served as Sector Operations Centre for co-coordinating RAF fighter jets.
And it also protected Scotland from attack by Russian long-range nuclear bombers until around 1960.
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But it was later reconfigured to become a regional seat of government in the event of a nuclear attack, designed to accommodate 400 politicians and civil servants for up to 30 days.
The eerie, abandoned rooms are hardly fit for a Queen - with no hint of any luxury or creature comforts.
The floors are packed dirt or bare wood and dust and rubble litter the vast empty spaces.
It was sold in 2005 to James Mitchell, owner of Scotland's Secret Bunker, who has worked with a team of volunteers to carry out restoration work.
The owner now intends to open Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker up to the public as a museum after plans were approved by the City of Edinburgh Council.
One of the biggest subterranean military sites in Britain, the Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker was built over three storeys.
The bunker was used as a control centre where information was analysed, and became a base for a radar air defence system.
The structure even contained a BBC broadcasting studio, and was large enough to house 400 people—including members of the military, the police, and the fire and ambulance services.
Since the Cold War never escalated into nuclear war, the bunker was no longer in operation by the 1980s.
But in the 1990s it fell victim to vandals who torched it and raided the interior for scrap metal.
The bunker was one of 38 which was built in Britain and measures 37,000sq feet.
An old telephone exchange is the only remnant of the undergound area's original purpose.
Meanwhile, a huge metal pipe, big enough for men and women to huddle in, appears to be the main defence against a nuclear blast.
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A description on the official Barnton Bunker website reads: "Our mission is to restore the historic 1940’s RAF and Cold War era Nuclear Bunker into a fully operational visitor attraction, with the intention to open the doors to guided hard-hat tours.
"The Barnton Bunker Restoration Project has seen the bunker’s ‘shell’ entirely stripped in order to authentically reinstate it to how it once was and turn the bunker into a visitor attraction and meeting and conference facility."
