Barnton Quarry is a disused stone

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

Corstorphine Hill Corstorphine Hill is a low ridge-shaped hill rising above the western suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. Although there has been residential and commercial development on its lower slopes, especially in the south and west, most of the hill is occu ...

Clermiston Clermiston is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the west of the city and to the immediate north of Corstorphine, on the western slopes of Corstorphine Hill. Clermiston estate, built from 1954 onwards, was part of a major 1950s house-building ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. The site was later used as a military command centre, and is now being converted into a museum. Stone was extracted from the quarry until 1914. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF) built a Fighter Command operations room in the quarry. In 1952, during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, this facility was expanded into a central coordination facility for radar stations throughout Scotland. The military authorities closed the site and in 1983 and transferred ownership to the local council. The site was subsequently vandalised and damaged by fire. The site is now being cleaned and restored with the goal of creating a local Cold War museum and education centre. The project is being undertaken by volunteers, with funding from the owners of Scotland's Secret Bunker, a disused bunker near

Anstruther Anstruther ( ; ) is a coastal town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth and south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther Easter and Anstruther Wester, which are divided by a st ...

which is now run as a tourist attraction.

History

Barnton Quarry produced stone until 1914, then in 1942 was used as an RAF fighter command operations room. A bunker was built in 1952 as the SOC (Sector Operations Centre) for correlating information from

ROTOR ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...

radar stations throughout Scotland. The bunker comprises three underground levels and a large surface building which predates the underground structure. The site was re-designated as a Regional Seat of Government in the early 1960s. The bunker was kept ready to accommodate 400 politicians and civil servants for up to 30 days. It remained operational until the early 1980s. Ownership was transferred to Lothian Regional Council in 1983. In the late 1980s, MacGregor Properties bought the site but failed to get planning permission to develop it. The underground structure was damaged by fire in August 1991 and again in May 1993. The site was purchased by James Mitchell, owner of Scotland's Secret Bunker. Since 2011, a team of volunteers has helped with renovation efforts. The aim is to create a museum and education centre with a view to restoring the R4 bunker to the original 1952 configuration. In June 2021,

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

designated the site as Category-A listed.

References

External links

Barnton Quarry Restoration Project

* ttp://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst8554.html Barnton Quarry described within the Gazetteer for Scotland of the Royal Scottish Geographic Society
Barnton Quarry in the Scots at War directory

Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker at Atlas Obscura
{{Authority control Government buildings completed in 1952 Subterranea of the United Kingdom Quarries in Scotland Buildings and structures in Edinburgh 1952 establishments in Scotland United Kingdom nuclear command and control Emergency management in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References

External links