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The Scots at War Trust

A - Z Index Miscellany

Otherwise known as Craigend, Barnton Park was one of a series of famous quarries on the west side of Edinburgh which yielded high quality building stone. Barnton was particularly well known for its whin rock kerb stones. Quarrying work stopped around 1914 and the land surrounding the quarry had been formed into the Bruntsfield Golf Course.

In  1950 the quarry site was chosen for location of the (Scottish) Sector (Air Defense) Operations Centre (SOC) in the event of nuclear attack during the Cold War. The facility was a purpose built, three level underground bunker of a standard design 120 ft x 60ft known as an R4.

The main contractor hired to carry the infill to cover this huge building once it was constructed was a local man from Davidson’s Mains, John  F “Tony” Peden. and for several months his lorries plied backwards and forwards between the Dalmeny coal bing and  Barnton Quarry bringing in the red  coloured spoil. The whole structure was designed to protect against the ground shock of an atomic bomb or conventional 2,000lb armour piercing bombs dropped from 26,000feet and in places the covering soil exceeded 14 feet in depth.

At the core of the building was the three level operations room with a map table, information display boards and tiers of control cabins. In addition there were rest areas, toilet and kitchen facilities, air conditioning and filter units and Post Office telephone and teleprinter equipment. Air defence radar stations in the Scottish sector at Drone Hill, Cross Law, Anstruther, Douglas Wood, Inverbervie, School Hill, Buchan, Hill Head, Netherbutton, Sango and Fullarton all reported to Barnton Park Quarry.

In the 1980s, with the reorganisation of United Kingdom Civil Defence, Barnton Park became the Scottish Central Region Government Headquarters with Anstruther controlling the North Zone, Kirknewton the East Zone and East Kilbride the West Zone.

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