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Inverness Bunker

Mackintosh Road, Inverness, Invernessshire.

Nuclear bunker. Large rectangular concrete blockhouse earth sheltered but not actually underground. Operational until recently. Sols 2018. Now a private museum.

The Raigmore bunker, in Inverness, started life in 1941 as part of a secret RAF radar station. During World War II, it was what was known as a filter block where air force personnel processed information gathered by radar stations strung along the Scottish coast. The council structures share similar features and designs - reinforced concrete, steel blast doors, decontamination chambers, communication rooms, dormitories and generators to provide electricity. Highland Council's Raigmore facility is where the local authority, police, fire, ambulance service, coastguard and the military can come together to co-ordinate responses to disasters. In recent times, personnel met at the bunker when flash flooding struck Inverness in 2002, also after a freighter carrying 84 tonnes of diesel and 3,300 of zinc concentrate ran aground on the Summer Isles in 2003 and in 2010 after a container holding detonators exploded in Inverness. Andrew Denovan, an emergency planning officer at Highland Council, said the bunker, which today is surrounded by housing developments, remained an asset in modern times. He said: "The bunker - as an ex-Cold War facility - lends itself very well to being the council's emergency centre in the 21st Century. "For a start, and with business continuity in mind, it is important that the council's emergency centre is not co-located with the main council offices, for if an incident were to affect these buildings it would also make any emergency centre situated there unusable. "Located on the other side of Inverness, on land that cannot flood, and with easy access from both the A9 and A96, the bunker provides the council with resilient, alternative accommodation." The Raigmore bunker has 60 rooms, generators if there is a power cut and its own radio mast. If digital communications are disrupted, the site can switch to analogue technology with assistance from the Radio Amateurs' Emergency Network, external. Mr Denovan added: "It is discreet and yet well-known by those need to attend it. "Although there is no reason to keep the bunker secret today, it is very well hidden by the trees that surround it." [BBC News, 2012]

The original WW2 Sector Operation Centre at Raigmore, Inverness consisted of three separate bunkers, an ops room, a filter room and a communications centre. The ROC used the ops room (now been demolished) and the communications centre (also demolished). The filter room has had a five million pound refit which includes a massive water tank in the basement and an new ventilation system and blast doors. The bunker is manned daily and is used by the Highland Council as their emergency planning centre. The bunker is one of three that formed the RAF 13 Group Control at Raigmore during the last war. Of the three, only the filter room is still extant. It was used by the Civil Defence Corps from 1958 - 1968 and was then used by the ROC in addition to their own protected accommodation in the former control bunker. In more recent times it was used by a local theatre group for painting scenery which was suspended from the balcony. In 1988 the site was acquired by the Highland Council and with a 90% Government grant it was converted into their emergency centre, also incorporating the Inverness Borough Emergency Centre. Externally the grass mounded bunker is little altered although the main access has been rebuilt. There is a large lattice communications tower at the rear and a porter cabin in front which is used by the emergency planning team as their day to day office. In times of emergency, however small, a team is moved into the bunker. The filter room was built on two levels with an operations room in the centre with a balcony looking down into the 'well'. During the conversion, the balcony was floored across. Inside the new 'front door', steps lead down through a decontamination area and blast doors into the main upper corridor running around two and a half sides of the bunker. The room formed from flooring across the balcony now houses a conference and briefing suite consisting of the main conference room with a large central table, chairs, projection screen and audio visual equipment, around it are five smaller rooms. The two dormitories are on this level although their beds have now been removed and adjacent to them is the controllers room and sleeping quarters. The original stairs are still in use at both ends with the male toilets adjacent to the stairs at the west end and the ventilation plant room at the eastern end with a workshop alongside. All the ventilation plant was new in 1988 and it includes two modern racing bicycles (including gears and back brake) mounted on concrete plinths. Their front wheels have been removed and the back wheels are connected to a belt drive. (This practice was common place during the last war and has recently been noted in STASI bunkers in East Germany) These would have been used to keep the air circulating in the event of a power failure. At the rear of the room two steps lead up to a small filter room. A collection of ex-ROC equipment is kept in the workshop including a 'Secomec' hand operated siren, ground zero indicator (GZI), bomb power indicator (BPI), two portable dosimeters with chargers and a variety of different radiation meters. There is also a complete aircraft instrument from a nearby post consisting of a tripod, circular metal chart and the Micklethwaite sighting instrument. Close to the workshop is the second exit consisting of two heavy blast doors and a short flight of stairs up to the original emergency exit. Between the two blast doors is a blanket store with blankets still there ready for use. The hub of the new bunker is on the lower floor where the original well floor now forms the control room with desks and computer terminals for the various agencies and maps around the walls. Adjacent to the control room is the radio room consisting of acoustic booths along each wall and at one end the Communications Centre. At most emergency centres Raynet provide an important part of the communications network but unusually they were unable to provide the service here and a local amateur radio group has been formed to provide this function. Next to the Communications Centre a room has been set aside for the Service Liaison Officer if the services were involved in the emergency and next to that is the small telephone exchange but without the usual ECN unit. From the telephone exchange, a few steps lead down to what would have been the original ventilation plant area. This has now been divided into several rooms including a ten bay help line which was manned through the foot and mouth crisis and beyond that the generator room leading through into the tank room. The two Perkins diesel generators are kept permanently heated to 60 degrees to aid easy starting. They have a small fuel tank alongside which is automatically filled from the main tanks on the surface. As this is a 'dirty' area there is an air lock with two gas tight doors and a shower between the room and the main lower corridor which again runs around two and a half sides of the bunker. On the west side of the control room is the kitchen and canteen with female toilets along the eastern end corridor. The bunker is kept in a state of readiness and is regularly used for training exercises. When fully manned there would be a staff of approximately 30, a small number for such a large bunker. [Catford, 2001]

Venue that's a sure best cellar. Highland Region has the perfect venue for explosive discussions - 20 ft underground. The latest conference organiser's dream is a fully equipped nuclear-fallout shelter in the Raigmore housing estate. The 1942 RAF control bunker has been refurbished to operate as the Highland emergency operations centre and is now being marketed as an upto-the-minute conference suite. The bunker has had a varied history. In the early 50s, the RAF turned it over to the Civil Defence Authority, which ran it until 1968. It was then used by firefighters for breathingapparatus training, by the Royal Ordnance Corp and by Eden Court Theatre and Inverness Operatic Society as a storeroom. The centre was refurbished in 1989 for a role as Highland emergency-operations centre, equipped with its own telephone exchange, direct links to all emergency services and its own water and electricity supplies. Dining area Principle emergency planning officer Mr Brian Downie said: "With the recent changes in the Soviet Bloc, the main use for the centre is now one of handling emergencies such as flooding and natural disasters. "However, it is designed as a nuclear shelter and can be entirely self-sufficient for up to 14 days." The suite consists of one large room with four smaller rooms leading from it. All may be used by those hiring the main room, which seats 40 people. The smaller rooms each accommodate 15 people and can be hired individually. A full range of equipment is also available, including TVs, videos, overhead projectors and slide projectors. And there is a dining area, with catering staff available. Mr Dowme said: "We have had quite a lot of interest from Highland Regional departments and local businesses." [Aberdeen Press and Journal. 2001]

Plans have been lodged to convert part of a Second World War bunker in Inverness into a thriving community museum. The two-storey sunken rectangular building was one of three separate bunkers that composed the original sector operations centre at Raigmore. Following the succession of major civil disasters including Piper Alpha, the government decided all local authorities should have emergency plans in place to deal with civil protection - leading to the transformation of the category B listed bunker in 1988 into an emergency centre for the north. [Press and Journal, 2019]

Alternative Names: Raigmore Bunker

Notes: B-listed.