Architecture

What's your bid for a British Cold War bunker?

What's your bid for a British Cold War bunker?
The Cultybraggan shelter is up for auction with bids starting at £200,000 (US$300,000)
The Cultybraggan shelter is up for auction with bids starting at £200,000 (US$300,000)
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The Cultybraggan shelter was built in 1990
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The Cultybraggan shelter was built in 1990
The Cultybraggan shelter is up for auction with bids starting at £200,000 (US$300,000)
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The Cultybraggan shelter is up for auction with bids starting at £200,000 (US$300,000)
The Cultybraggan shelter was designed to shelter part of the British government in the event of nuclear war
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The Cultybraggan shelter was designed to shelter part of the British government in the event of nuclear war
The Cultybraggan shelter can house 150
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The Cultybraggan shelter can house 150
The Cultybraggan shelter has 50 rooms
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The Cultybraggan shelter has 50 rooms
The Cultybraggan shelter has a BBC studio
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The Cultybraggan shelter has a BBC studio
The Cultybraggan shelter emergency exit
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The Cultybraggan shelter emergency exit
The Cultybraggan shelter is marked by a ventilator and radio mast
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The Cultybraggan shelter is marked by a ventilator and radio mast
The Cultybraggan shelter marked in red
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The Cultybraggan shelter marked in red
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You can never be too careful, and if you have a upwards of £200,000 (US$330,000) laying around, you could sleep a little easier as the new owner of a nuclear bunker. Built by the British government during the Cold War to ride out a Soviet attack, the decommissioned Cultybraggan Camp bunker is being put on the block as part of a plan to preserve and redevelop the former British Army camp.

Unlike many other previously secret bunkers that were sited under hotels and other seemingly innocent locations, Cultybraggan looks like a nuclear bunker. Tucked into the back of the camp, it’s surrounded by its own security fence and consists of two levels with the upper level above ground, though buried under soil. It’s hard to miss even from a distance because it’s topped by a large ventilator and a radio mast.

Once you get through a pair of blast doors, you’re faced with a huge installation covering about 26,000 sq ft (2,400 sq m) of carpeted space.There are 50 rooms designed to house 150 personnel in time of emergency, with a meeting room, kitchen, generator, life support systems, water tanks, dormitory, hospital, workshop, and even a BBC studio. And if you’re looking for a fixer upper, the floors contain large, removable concrete slabs, which makes it easy to upgrade and replace equipment.

The Cultybraggan shelter has a BBC studio
The Cultybraggan shelter has a BBC studio

Located outside Comrie, Scotland, Cultybraggan Camp isn't much to look at with its rows of Nissen huts and brick buildings. It was built in 1941 as PoW camp No. 21 for holding 4,000 of the most fanatical Nazi prisoners of war, and Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess spent a night there after he parachuted into Scotland from a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter plane in May of that year.

Cultybraggan was a bit of a backwater after the war, when it hosted various British Army units and a Royal Observers Corp post. Then, in the late 1980s, it was chosen as the site for a new Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) nuclear bunker. Completed in 1990 at the cost of £30 million (US$50 million), it was part of a strategy for dispersing the government in time of war to improve the chances of surviving a nuclear attack, with Cultybraggan controlling Region 1 (Scotland). From there, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the BBC, British Telecom, and other services could continue to operate after the bombs stopped falling.

Despite the cost, the end of the Cold War left Cultybraggan without a job, so in the early ‘90s it was sold to the Army, then to the Cumrie Development Trust in 2007 for preservation and redevelopment.

On March 27, at the Edinburgh Marriott Hotel, Future Property Auctions will put the decommissioned Cultybraggan Camp bunker on the block with bids starting at £200,000.

Source: Future Property Auctions via Daily Mail

View gallery - 9 images
9 comments
9 comments
yawood
Now that's what you call depreciation! 30 million GBP to 200k in 24 years.
Slowburn
What a wine cellar that would make.
Richard Unger
You could have a lot of fun with that, its on my lottery list.
Mous
just what I'm looking for! Do they deliver?
Stephen N Russell
Uses for: TV & Movie production, B&B Inn, Hostel, restaurant, nightclub, Storage, Auto storage, Lab, Clinic, Pvt Home, store Scotch & Whiskey, Ammo & Gun storage??, Tech shops, Brewery craft?, Wine, port./cognac cellar, Morgue?
Many uses
Tourists would flock to just experience night over in a Real Life bunker. Provide some local jobs alone.
Internet Café center. WiFi area center for local use. Theme décor home inside?? add hidden panels etc??
Surface Heliport nearby?? & plant some trees too.
The Skud
Would make a good central base for a holiday camp type of thing, if only you could get past the problem of "nothing to see, nothing to do" of being a backwater. It is bit too big to make a private home out of it, although the hard work of excavation and building has been done.
YouAre
With a not-so-distant nuclear-warheaded and ready to annex other countries superpower, this auction seems to be premature.
Bob
Hopefully no radon, asbestos or lead paint to clean up. If so, the price is too high.
Matt Rings
Very cheap in price-per-square feet estimations. Ideal for a server farm requiring secure access.