The 38 nuclear bunkers in Scotland you need to know about as WW3 fears surge
Many Scottish bunkers were built in World War Two and were upgraded during the Cold War
Scotland holds a crucial place in Britain's vast network of underground bunkers, developed over decades to protect the nation in times of conflict.
This network, made up of anti-aircraft operation rooms, regional war rooms, underground Observer Corps posts, command bunkers, emergency centres, and radar stations, includes 38 nuclear bunkers scattered across the country.
Many of these Scottish sites date back to the Second World War and were later converted to withstand nuclear threats during the Cold War. Others were newly built to defend against potential Soviet attacks.
While peaceful relations with Russia have since been established and many bunkers across Britain have fallen into disuse or been sold off, a significant number remain operational in Scotland, ready to be used if nuclear conflict arises with Russia or other hostile states.
Research from Subterranea Britannica reveals a total of 284 fallout shelters across the UK, Express reports, with eight new discoveries adding to their records in recent months.
Of these, 38 are in Scotland, highlighting the country's vital strategic role.
One of Scotland's most remarkable bunkers is Pitreavie Castle Combined HQ. Originally a fortified house built in the early 17th century, the castle was sold to the Air Ministry in 1938.
An underground bunker was built beneath it, which during the Second World War coordinated operations for both RAF Coastal Command and the Royal Navy. Following the war, Pitreavie Castle served as a UK and NATO maritime headquarters until its closure in 1996.
Subterranea Britannica notes that it housed the No. 18 Group headquarters, responsible for maritime air operations north of Flamborough Head in Yorkshire, covering northern and western Scottish waters.
Naval operations from Flamborough Head to Wick in Caithness were commanded from Rosyth by the Navy's Commander-in-Chief.
Full list of Scotland's nuclear bunkers:
Aberdeen Civil Defence Control
Aberdeen Tertowie House Grampian Regional Council Emergency Centre
Aird Uig Rotor Radar Station
Anstruther Rotor Radar Station and Scotland North Zone HQ
Ayr ROC Group HQ
Barnton Quarry Rotor SOC and Regional Seat of Government
Buchan R7 Remote Type 7 Radar
Buchan Rotor Radar Station
Burntisland Railway Control Centre
Cragiehall AAOR
Craigiebarns Dundee ROC Group HQ
Crosslaw Rotor Radar Station
Cultybraggan RGHQ
East Kilbride Western Zone Regional War Room
Edinburgh City Control
Elgin Pinefields Area Control
Falkirk Civil Defence Headquarters
Faraid Head Rotor Radar Station
Gairloch AAOR
Inverbervie Rotor Radar Station
Inverkip AAOR
Inverness Raigmore Highland Emergency Centre
Inverness ROC HQ
Inverurie Gordon District Council Emergency Centre
Kilchiaran Rotor Radar Station
Kirknewton Regional War Room and Scottish Eastern Zone HQ
Northfield Aberdeen ROC Group HQ
Oban ROC Group HQ
Pitreavie Castle Combined HQ
Portree bunker
Saxa Vord Rotor Radar Station
Schoolhill ROC Sector Control
Stonehaven Kincardine and Deeside District Council Emergency Centre
Tayside Regional Council Emergency Centre
Torrance House AAOR
Turnhouse Edinburgh ROC Group HQ
Uddingston BT Repeater
Wick Rotor Radar Station
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Beyond government bunkers, Scotland is also seeing growth in private underground shelters.
As fears of war and unrest rise, demand for secure safe rooms has surged by up to 400 per cent in recent years, with companies like Subterranean Spaces and The Panic Room Company reporting skyrocketing interest.
Basic backyard bunkers can cost around £10,000, while luxury shelters fitted with cinemas, gyms, and independent power supplies can top £3million.
Wealthy clients across the UK, especially in Scotland, London, and Wales, are investing in these bunkers not only as protection but as lifestyle features, doubling as wine cellars or entertainment spaces.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Welfare state is being treated not as a shared good, but as a burden
Supporters are told to welcome these as signs of pragmatism, but they reveal only a fake-it-till-you-make-it government clinging to the same austerity logic that's gutted public services for more than a decade. There's no strategy of principled adaptation, just damage control masquerading as radical policy-overhaul. READ MORE: Wes Streeting forced to admit Labour wants fewer people claiming PIP Like cynical venture capitalists who asset-strip football clubs, this government treats the welfare state not as a shared good but as a historical burden. Public support systems are remodelled with fewer seats, less atmosphere, and none of the legacy. Cuts are proposed, resisted, and delayed, but always within the logic of managed decline. First they tried to demolish the Kop end stand, now they promise only future fans will be excluded. Proclaiming progress, the luscious playing surface is narrowed and replaced with astroturf. Starmer and his front bench echo the language of 'toughness' while attacking the right to protest and doubling down on hostile-environment policies. Protesters are kettled, marches are banned, and dissent is criminalised by degrees. All this while far-right groups openly organise to infiltrate and co-opt Reform UK, talking of 'seizing control' and reshaping elections by 2030. READ MORE: Scottish Labour MP not 'proud' of Keir Starmer's first year in charge These are not fringe figures. They're part of a co-ordinated ecosystem of antisemitism, Islamophobia, authoritarianism and conspiracism – emboldened by silence and triangulation. Instead of calling it out, however, Labour's leadership seems content to play the same game: pinned in the six-yard box, offering managerial discipline while the far right runs rings around them and takes audacious pot-shots. Picture ex-Scotland manager Craig Levein's infamous 6-4-0 formation against the Czech Republic, but fielding only newly drafted players who might be loyal, but have no experience in big games. Those of us pushed to the margins – disabled people, migrants, Muslims, and working-class communities – know what happens when the centre tries to outflank the right. Rights are lost and protections evaporate. We vanish from the headlines, except when someone from a marginalised group sells their soul for a front-bench post to prop up the attack on their own team. More of us end up in poverty, detention, or despair. READ MORE: Home Office staff concerned over 'absurd ban on Palestine Action' Meanwhile, Number 10 parades like champions of Europe, running victory laps over a non-league economy. The fans are left with crumbling public services – akin to Manchester United fans getting drenched beneath Old Trafford's increasingly dilapidated roof. And though our elected manager and board point to victories of old, it's clear they're preparing to flog the stadium that is the UK to the highest bidder, while calling it progress. There's still time to fight this decline, but only if leaders stop hiding behind spreadsheets and rediscover the courage to name what we're up against: a political slide toward exclusion, authoritarianism, and resentment – selling the strongest players in the name of a squad rebuild. The public knows the difference between real change and stage-managed retreat. Delivering anything less than what's needed means not just losing the match, but the risk of relegation and surrendering the values on which the club's success was genuinely built. Ron Lumiere via email FOLLOWING Laura Webster's Saturday article on about Labour founding the welfare state, which has become a standard response by Labour hacks to every scenario: the Labour welfare state is a myth. The welfare state was agreed, with minor differences, by the wartime coalition. Bismarck had a welfare state in the 1870s and he was no socialist either; he wanted a race of supermen. The Brits had to acknowledge that the German soldier was fitter, taller and better educated, like the Channel Islands' children after German occupation. READ MORE: We investigate the state of the welfare state – read our new series England did not achieve public education till the 1870s, due to opposition by the controlling Church of England. The Church of Scotland had no wish to control public education in Scotland, which has been free since the reformation. Incidentally, Catholic education legislation was introduced at the turn of the last century by a Liberal government, not because they were sympathetic to Catholicism, but because the wanted to create divisions in Scotland. Incidentally, there are no 'Prodistent' schools in Scotland, merely non-denominational schools where Catholic and other-denomination pupils and teachers are more common than most people realise. It was a Liberal minister in World War One, Winston Churchill, who introduced free milk, because of the poorer state of the British working class compared to German wartime recruits. The architect of the welfare state was the Liberal Lord Beveridge. Lords Wilson and Callaghan introduced further austerity and pay freezes etc. Donald Anderson Glasgow IF Westminster taxed the rich cheats who threw money at Brexit so they could avoid the new EU laws on tax havens, they would bring in way more cash than they will get from hitting the poor and disabled. They could close the loopholes the government deliberately creates and make everyone pay their tax. Loopholes are actually government-created corruption. Labour could recover if they taxed the rich – as long as Israel doesn't mind, of course. Bill Robertson via email
Edinburgh Reporter
an hour ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
Reset supporting refugees in Edinburgh
A warm welcome, the Scottish way – powered by people like us. In a quiet corner of Fountainbridge, one Edinburgh family is thriving — going to school, making friends, playing football in the park. Just a few years ago, they arrived in the UK through the Community Sponsorship scheme, a national programme that empowers local people to take the lead in resettling refugees. Now, the grassroots group that welcomed them, Edinburgh Refugee Sponsorship Circle, is breaking new ground again. Faced with the news that the family's rented flat was being sold, the group decided not to let instability undo years of community-building. Instead, they've launched a radical new housing project — purchasing the property themselves through a community-led trust, ensuring the family can stay rooted in the neighbourhood they now call home. 'We knew what losing that flat would mean for the family — and we were really motivated to create an alternative path, not just for them, but hopefully for others too,' says Fae, one of ERSC's founding volunteers. Community Sponsorship is a UK-wide scheme that enables everyday people — faith groups, book clubs, neighbours, colleagues — to come together and welcome a refugee family to their area. With support from Reset the UK's national charity for Community Sponsorship, groups like ERSC receive training, guidance and peer support to walk alongside families as they rebuild their lives. ERSC's model is particularly inspiring because it shows what's possible when ordinary people take bold, practical steps — even in the middle of a housing emergency. They remain entirely volunteer-run, powered by shared values and a belief that welcome should last longer than a warm hello at the airport. Now they're inviting others to get involved. Whether you want to join or form a sponsorship group, contribute to their housing trust, or simply learn more, ERSC is showing Edinburgh what solidarity looks like in action. Because welcome isn't abstract. It's about homes, schools, neighbours — and people like you. ➡ Learn more or support the project: ➡ Interested in Community Sponsorship? We've just launched a new online introduction – find out more ADVERTORIAL FEATURE Like this: Like Related
The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
I have walked amongst Scotland's largest gulls - they are a menace
They are big too. Very big, probably the biggest in Scotland, and with their size comes with equally large beaks, and that is where the problem lies. Have anything edible about your person at that time of the morning then you really are in trouble. For gulls, like some of us humans, seem to have forgotten all about their traditional diet of healthy fish discarded over the side of a trawler, and now prefer fast food – and more of it the better. And you can see their point in a way. Why would you want a measly fish straight out of the sea, when you can gorge on plump ones wrapped in batter and served with chips. However, it is not a laughing matter really, as there are increasing examples of people getting hurt by the hungry birds up and down the country. Now the problem (again) has been raised at Holyrood with former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross warning that Scots risk losing their lives over the 'growing problem' of 'dominating' gulls if action is not taken to stop them. That is quite the claim but at least had evidence to back it up. In the chamber, Mr Ross spoke of gull horror stories including one woman who fell outside her house as a result of a gull attack, broke her leg, went to hospital and then, upon her return, was attacked again. It is high time that irresponsible campervan users are taxed off the NC500 Alan Simpson: The new £144m electric rail line without enough trains Alan Simpson: Giving CalMac contract is right - now give them better ships Alan Simpson: Scotland's tourism sector needs to be heard before it's too late The debate was led by Mr Ross after he submitted a motion stating that the parliament should note concern around the reported changes to the approach taken for granting licences to control gulls in recent years by NatureScot. He argued that this has led to fewer licences being approved. A total of 2,041 licences were granted in 2023, however this figure fell to 505 in 2024. He told the chamber there is a 'clear conflict' in the Scottish Government body Nature Scot between conserving and preserving bird numbers and controlling the applications to regulate bird numbers. Mr Ross also criticised NatureScot and the Scottish Government for being on the side of seagulls and not humans during a sometimes heated debate at Holyrood. The Former Scottish Conservative leader said: 'Currently they are clearly conflicted between conserving and preserving bird numbers and also being the agency that looks at and deliberates on applications to control birds. 'It is not possible any more for Nature Scot to do those dual roles'. Mr Ross pointed that NatureScot keep a record of bird deaths or injury but not take any record of people injured. He said communities and businesses in his own constituency of Moray, Nairn and Inverness have had significant problems with gulls in recent years, but that many communities across Scotland also experience similar problems. He also said the gulls are causing 'mental health issues' as their constant screeching torments the general public. 'They are a menace,' he emphasised to parliament. Mr Ross said he is not ignoring that people are encouraging gulls by feeding them and he accepted that was 'part of the problem'. Gulls 'dominating areas' are also seeing a reduction of other smaller birds, he argued. Mr Ross called on more 'robust action' from the Scottish Government and NatureScot to protect humans and businesses from 'the menace of dangerous gulls'. It is hard to argue with Mr Ross on this one as we can all probably recall being menaced by seagulls at one point or another in recent times. His point about smaller birds being driven from some areas is also true, as I can vouch from my own garden, which can suddenly become full of gulls, particularly when people put bread out. Of course, this is always well intentioned as it put out for smaller birds who cannot get a look in as everything is hoovered up by the aggressive gulls. I live a good 30-odd miles from the coast too, proving that the problem with gulls is not confined to seaside communities. Residents and businesses in the former fishing port of Nairn on the Moray Firth believe gulls have become a serious problem. Alan Simpson: Build more houses for rural Scots, not tax second home owners Alan Simpson: NatureScot may be threatening a rare mussel it should be protecting Alan Simpson: Forcing landowners to sell to locals is not the best solution We thought the good times would last forever. We were wrong. What next for Aberdeen? A survey by Nairn Business Improvement District (Bid) last year received 85 reports of gull attacks. Manager Lucy Harding told the BBC: 'That was quite worrying. It is an issue I regularly get reports on, of people being attacked for food particularly.' Gulls, like other birds, are protected by law and Scotland's nature body, NatureScot, has strict rules around how they are controlled. A licence is needed for the removal of nests and eggs from the roofs of buildings in areas where gulls are deemed to be a nuisance. But Ms Harding said it was now harder to obtain the necessary paperwork. Nairn Bid has put in place other measures to discourage gulls from nesting in the town, including reflective devices designed to scare birds away from rooftops. Gulls are a coastal species, but they have been drawn into towns and cities due to the plentiful places to build nests, a lack of predators - and lots of opportunities to find food. In their natural habitats - the coast and farmland - the birds eat carrion, seeds, fruits, young birds, eggs, small mammals, insects and fish. NatureScot issued 2,633 nest removal licences across Scotland in 2023, and 1,601 in 2024. It said it understood gulls could sometimes cause problems in towns and cities, but at the same time populations of the birds were facing 'serious declines'. NatureScot said it would continue to issue licenses where gulls were causing a health and safety issue. RSPB Scotland say that people and gulls could coexist if the right action was taken. Numbers of herring gulls, a species people are most likely to encounter in urban areas, have fallen by 48% in Scotland since the 1980s, according to RSPB Scotland. Clearly the answer then is not just mass culling of gulls, but it is fair to say that more robust action needs to be taken before somebody does get seriously hurt. But the answer ultimately lies with all of us and the amount of food that we just casually throw away, which then attracts gulls. We all need to look at our own behaviour and stop blaming the gulls, however menacing they are, for everything. Ultimately, we are the problem and therefore we are the solution too.
