Plan to turn N-bunker into visitor centre
The owners of Cold War nuclear bunker want to turn it into a visitor attraction and conference centre.
An application has been submitted to Edinburgh City Council for refurbishment by the owner of the Barnton Quarry Nuclear Bunker, Scotscrown Ltd, which is run by James Mitchell.
Mr Mitchell also owns Scotland’s Secret Bunker, an underground museum, near St Andrews. He believes the Edinburgh bunker should also be accessible to the public.
He said: “It really is a part of our history and we don’t want to lose it.
“Everything is going to be done to the highest standards so that we can we can do much more interactive things with children, schools and universities.
“We’ve had a lot of participation from the local community, so I’d like to think that it would become a positive for them, instead of the eyesore that it is just now.”
Mr Mitchell said he anticipates council planning officials making a recommendation on his application within weeks.
The bunker, which sits in Barnton Quarry in the city’s Clermiston, was built in 1940 and expanded in the 1950s to be used as a sector operations centre during the Cold War.
It was later redesigned to be used as a seat of government in case of a nuclear attack, accommodating up to 400 politicians and civil servants for up to 30 days. It is one of the largest subterranean military sites in the UK.
Scotscrown submitted a similar planning permission application last year. However, it did not submit a full bat survey, so was asked by the council to withdraw the application and resubmit.
Earlier this year, the bunker
was granted Category-a listed status by Historic Environment Scotland.
In the 1990s, the bunker was damaged by two fires and raided for scrap metal by vandals and thieves.
The architect for the project, Kelvin Donaldson, said: ““When my client bought this bunker, it was a burned-out shell. Through the involvement of volunteers and their studious hard work over a
large number of years, they have cleared out the bunker and started a long process of bringing it back into its original condition”.