Report - Barnton Quarry Bunker, Edinburgh - January 2010

[Oxygen Thief]

Explored with Raddog, Rooks and Dweeb

Barnton Quarry is a ROTOR bunker of designation R4 in Clermiston, Edinburgh. It was built in 1952 as the SOC (Sector Operations Centre) for correlating information from ROTOR radar stations throughout Scotland. The bunker comprises three underground levels and a large surface building which pre-dates the underground structure.
The site was re-designated as a RSG (Regional Seat of Government) in the early 1960s and remained operational until the early 1980s when ownership was transferred to Lothian Regional Council. The Council sold the site in the late 1980s to a private property developer.
The underground structure was damaged by fire in the early 1990s.

...basically a post war operations centre, and a three-storey rotor bunker.

Very black, very dirty, extremely dangerous in parts, and it's riddled with asbestos.

The old plotting room, now flooded...

and from the other side...

Steps to a serving hatch...

The main corridor...

and some nice painted signage...

and on we went to the rotor bunker down this slope shaft...

and this tunnel...

I didn't really think there was much to see down here. Yes some stuff survives, but it's a mess...

The plant level was quite intact though...

Main ventilation fans...

The old secure doors were still there, as was the plant room...

Air ducts running up the stairwell...

We were covered in soot by the time we got out. The rather pretty girl at the Travel Lodge wondered what the hell we had been rooting about in. The clothes and camera bag kept covering everything they touched in soot until they got washed today.