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Tarland ROC Post

Tarland, Tomnaverie, Aberdeenshire.

Subterranean chamber, used by Royal Observer Corps from 1960-1991. Locked, with interior and furnishings still intact.

Alternative Names: Tomnaverie ROC Post

Notes: Information board at site states:

"Beneath you sits a nuclear bunker built for the Royal Observer Corps in 1959. Posts like this were intended to monitor the strength and location of nuclear strikes had the Cold War turned hot.

In the event of war, three observers would have been underground for up to three weeks. If atomic weapons had been used, they would have emerged into an irradiated wasteland. Instruments would have recorded the size and type of any explosion and measured nuclear fallout levels. As a Master Post, Tomnaverie had an aerial to maintain contact with the local group control.

Tomnaverie was connected to the group control at Northfield in Aberdeen.

The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was created in 1925 to monitor the movements of any enemy aircraft that crossed Britain's coastline. With the advent of the Cold War, trained volunteers staffed posts such as this. In wartime, they would have been the eyes and ears of the authorities. Volunteers were recruited locally to operate the posts and trained regularly at the bunker. The ROC was officially stood down on 31 December 1991 as relations improved between Russia and the West. The Cold War was over"