Barnton Quarry Restoration Project 3.93

RAF Barnton Quarry, 4 miles from the city centre of Edinburgh and buried deep under Corstorphine Hill, has a long association with the RAF which dates back to the formation of the 3603 Fighter Control Unit of the famous 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron during WWII.

After WWII, the UK government identified Russia as a key threat to national security and the deep bunker at Barnton Quarry was built in 1952 as the response to that threat. Operating as the Sector Operations Centre for co-ordinating RAF fighter response to UK airspace intrusion, the staff at RAF Barnton Quarry protected Scotland from attack by Russian long-range nuclear bombers up until around 1960.

The theme was very much command and control, with radar sites stretching from the very north of Scotland right down to Northumberland (including our other bunker/museum, Scotland’s Secret Bunker, RAF Troywood near Anstruther) reporting radar contacts to Barnton Quarry via dedicated telephone lines, where the information was triangulated and subsequently plotted on huge map tables for RAF fighter commanders to view and make decisions regarding the fighter response.

The scale of the RAF operation here was astonishing; the central operations well is vast and exists over three floors deep underground. The bunker was specifically designed to withstand Russian attack. It's buried 100ft underground with walls of 10ft thick reinforced concrete, tank-metal blast doors, generators and a complex air conditioning and filtration system.

The site is of great historical importance as it is the only surviving example of this type of bunker in the UK which retains the original RAF three-level operations room. Sadly, the bunker has been neglected for many years and has suffered theft and fire damage. We plan to restore it exactly as it was under the RAF in 1952 and open the site as a museum so that visitors can experience it first-hand for themselves.

Our vision is to lever interactive technology to create rotating exhibits, all relevant to the teaching of RAF and Cold War history. The space we have on the site is huge, hence we plan reserve a chunk of our display space to invite guest exhibitors to display with the objective of providing new and interesting display topics for returning visitors. Addiitonally, we’re planning to create dedicated permanent displays to preserve the history of 603 squadron in the bunker which was home to the FCU!

We've been working hard for the past two years to recover the site. The project is going well; the next phase is to take the buildings back to the shell and restore from scratch. We're making great progress, but there is still a long way to go!

Volunteers are the lifeblood of what we're doing and we're very keen for volunteers to get involved in the project. Any help is appreciated! Contact volunteer@barntonquarry.org.uk for further details.