# Great North Road - Gibraltar March 2016 (permission visit)



## Newage (Mar 22, 2016)

Hi All

Well after loads of Battery visits its time to get our teeth in to the real meat of our visit to Gibraltar, this was a permission visit arranged through Subbrit and the MOD.

This is the Great North Road............

The tunnel starts at Maida Vale behind the old Casino at Europa Road and travels north behind the Rock Hotel to Brigade Headquarters and Doncaster Adit. At this point the road forks into several other minor tunnels dug to house kitchens and an ammunition magazine. The entrance to Wilson's Cave is also located here having been discovered while carrying out blasting the rock during the magazine's construction.

The 60 feet wide road continues north where it joins the Raglan Battery Shelter. The tunnel would allow military lorries to travel within the Rock. The Great North Road ends at the now abandoned Calpe Hole Generating station (see later report)however, the tunnel system continues all the way to the north face of Gibraltar where the World War II tunnels join the Galleries dug out during the latter part of the 18th century, now known as the Great Siege Tunnels. With the addition of Fosse Way in 1944 it was also possible to travel from the tunnel system within the Northern Defences down the complete length of the Rock to emerge on the south east side of Gibraltar.

Pictures Time..............

Entrance sign at Maida vale.












The tunnel opens up in to many large spaces so lorries could pass each other and also for storage.






In this area is dumped a large amount of WW2 Anti-submarine netting.






Each of the main areas are named after location along the UK Great north road, Maida Vale, Peterboro, Doncaster and Durham this way troops could find there way about with out getting lost in the tunnel complex.

The next set of pictures are from the Brigade HQ and the kitchens.











The last of the Adits along the Great north road is "Durham"






After this the Great North road carries on to another set of gates where it meets "Calpe Hole" this is the site of Calpe hospital and Calpe power generating station (more later)

Passages branch off left and right all along the Great north road and lead to places like "Magazine ramp", "Green Lane Magazine", "Peterboro chambers" and the Cold war "COMCEN" comms bunker.






Well that will do for the GNR, thanks for looking and a big thanks to the Guys who sorted the trip out and our MOD guide.
All comments are most welcome.
there are a few more pictures on my FlickR site so head over too:-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/albums/72157666201746276

Cheers Newage


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## night crawler (Mar 22, 2016)

Looks like you have been on Holiday, nice shots


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## flyboys90 (Mar 22, 2016)

Amazing set of tunnels!Great job of photographing them.


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## krela (Mar 23, 2016)

Interesting, thanks!


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## fluffy5518 (Mar 24, 2016)

That is incredible !! Some massive tunnels and stacks of abandonment-what a place !! Imagine being a kid (or explorer)born in Gibraltar !! Loving the British place names as well - bet you didnt find a Didcot ! The electrical installation at Durham Adit looks BRAND new - whats that about ?


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## Newage (Mar 24, 2016)

The tunnels are still in use by the MOD, they use the tunnels for training troops, the other way 
Is called Fosse way and it leads to a very restricted area, we did have permission to visit said
Location but it was cancelled at short notice.

Cheers newage


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