I visited this bunker a couple of years ago, but this was a visit by permission to take pictures and (more importantly) help shift the truck that's been blocking the access shaft for 20 years! So many thanks to Martyn 
Barnton Quarry has had several lives - first it was a stone quarry of course, then in WWII it was the operations room for the Turnhouse sector of Fighter Command. After the war it was unused for a few years, then in 1952 a whole second bunker was built underground to turn it into a R4 ROTOR bunker - ROTOR was a radar early warning system. Abandoned again, it became a Regional Seat of Government (RSG) in the 1960s, where the Scottish government could hide in the event of nuclear war - a BBC studio was built where encouraging messages could be broadcast to the surviving population.
It was abandoned again in the early '70s, and then suffered some catastrophic fires to leave it in the condition you see it now - the plan now is to renovate the WWII surface complex first, and use the proceeds from this to restore the ROTOR bunker.
First, the ROTOR bunker, and the top of the three-level main staircase:
The place is full of old tyres - this is one of the more photogenic piles
Looking down three floors in the main operations room:
Almost every room is smoke damaged:
The basement telecoms switching room:
The studio:
A blast door:
Part of the massive air conditioning system:
Plant room:
Showers in the WWII surface bunker:
I absolutely love the paint scheme in this place
That's it - more from both trips in my Flickr set...
Barnton Quarry has had several lives - first it was a stone quarry of course, then in WWII it was the operations room for the Turnhouse sector of Fighter Command. After the war it was unused for a few years, then in 1952 a whole second bunker was built underground to turn it into a R4 ROTOR bunker - ROTOR was a radar early warning system. Abandoned again, it became a Regional Seat of Government (RSG) in the 1960s, where the Scottish government could hide in the event of nuclear war - a BBC studio was built where encouraging messages could be broadcast to the surviving population.
It was abandoned again in the early '70s, and then suffered some catastrophic fires to leave it in the condition you see it now - the plan now is to renovate the WWII surface complex first, and use the proceeds from this to restore the ROTOR bunker.
First, the ROTOR bunker, and the top of the three-level main staircase:
The place is full of old tyres - this is one of the more photogenic piles
Looking down three floors in the main operations room:
Almost every room is smoke damaged:
The basement telecoms switching room:
The studio:
A blast door:
Part of the massive air conditioning system:
Plant room:
Showers in the WWII surface bunker:
I absolutely love the paint scheme in this place
That's it - more from both trips in my Flickr set...
