Brora Y Station was a Government listening station located South-east of

Brora Brora ( ; ) is a village in the east of Sutherland, in the Highland (council area), Highland area of Scotland. Origin of the name The name ''Brora'' is derived from Old Norse and means "river with a bridge". History Brora is a small industri ...

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

, Scotland which operated between 1940 and 1986.

History

The building was built for the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...

and completed by 1939. 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 ...

it operated as a Y-station, collecting information for analysts at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

. Unlike other Y stations Brora did not close after the War but continued as a

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 ...

monitoring station under the aegis of

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primari ...

(GCHQ) until it closed in 1986.

References

{{reflist Brora Buildings and structures in Sutherland GCHQ buildings and structures Y service 1939 establishments in Scotland