BACK IN TIME

Walking landscapes as they used to look… #1 FYLINGDALES MOOR

Between 1962 and 1992, walkers crossing almost any part of the western section of the North York Moors would have beheld these three extraordinary ‘radomes’ lurking on their horizon. They housed the mechanically-steered radar of RAF Fylingdales, and were the base station of a national early warning system designed to detect and warn of Soviet missile launches during the Cold War.

Their Bond-villain-lair chic made them quite a tourist attraction: drivers of tourist buses along the A169 Pickering to Whitby road would make sure their radios were turned on, allowing passengers to hear the squeal of interference as they passed Fylingdales.

In 1992 the ‘golf balls’ were replaced by the current ‘pyramid’ structure (strictly speaking, a tetrahedron), which is used for detection and satellite tracking, and is part of the US government’s controversial National Missile Defence system.

But if you like radomes, you can still see plenty at the RAF monitoring station at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate.