Berwickshire; WW2/Cold war artefacts, and a cycle around...

Saturday i picked up Craig and with the bikes loaded in the van drove down to Berwickshire to revisit some WW2/Cold War sites and explore some unvisited stuff that`s been on my to do list for a while,  

 The Cockburnspath   Royal Observer Corps Monitoring post has both the WW2 look out and the Cold War Post below ground.

Great views for spotting and tracking enemy aircraft from Norway attempting to bomb the Naval Fleet at Rosyth in the early months of the WW2.  On the moor in the distance over the county border in Berwickshire was the sight of a much larger observing site we were going to next...

To see pics of inside here click on link; Cockburnspath Post


This Post is now owned by the owner of Scotlands Secret Bunker; Blog post link

Over the County border...
Goodbye East Lothian, Hello Berwickshire!...

Dowlaw...

Drone Hill;
Drone Hill was the site of the first Chain Home Radar station in Scotland, it opened in 1939.
Here is a wartime picture...

Today the site is a caravan park, the defences and buildings still remain and can be explored,  the park was closed being winter so we could not access inside but had a look around in the surrounding fields..

This is one of several Type 27 Pillboxes,
This one was accessible with no livestock in the field so we had a look inside...

In the centre would have been a machine gun mounted on a post for firing into the air if a parachute attack

The Pill box that is buried in the dunes at Aberlady Nature Reserve is a type 27 and it is nearly completely out of site now, it shows just how much sand moves,

We were missing all the forecasted rain today!, east coast magic!...

Entrance and former guard house...

Inside another pill box.  We will need to revisit/camp a night in summer to look around, and they have a bar in a bunker!...

RAF Crosslaw
A short drive from Drone Hill is the former RAF Crosslaw, the site that took over from here after WW2 and the dawn of The Cold War.
The Radar on the hill top today is used to aid navigation, but previously the radar here did a very different job...

The nearby  house is now converted into a private dwelling, originaly built it was once the guard house for a one level CHEL 2 ROTOR Bunker which was an RSG (Regional Seat of Government). Up here on the moor was an ideal site for such a building  to carry out it`s clandestine Cold War operations...

Wiki link; ROTOR

Here is a link where you can read more about this site; RAF Crosslaw 

ROC Post,  Info..

The Camp for Crosslaw was in Coldinghame village nearby and you can read about life here during it`s operation here; Drone Hill/Crosslaw


Coldinghame;
Back to the van and bikes loaded we drove over the moor to Coldinghame village and parked up we rode to the coast past some interesting stuff...

 From the village are several lovely trails that descend to the coast here, like this one onto the beach...

Quiet today mid February this place gets real busy in warmer weather...

Back up the Mill burn path in the village...

Van loaded with bikes we drove along to Eyemouth and cycled up to the fort for a look around,
These 2 old cannon, set up between the great wars by the 1st Berwickshire Corp Volunteers, a 3rd cannon is reputed to have fallen over the cliff into the sea below...

Back into town and a look around the harbour...

Bikes loaded back in the van and time for chips!... a fun day out on and off the bikes...


Some film from the day, inc that sweet bit single track trail at Coldinghame  :-)
Song is `edge Hill` by Groove Armada


Coastrider; Cold War Artifacts, and a cycle around Coldinghame, Feb 2018 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


More soon...

Durness, Sutherland; Sango Bay Home Chain Radar

Around the coastal village of Durness you cant help but notice the amount of WW2 buildings scattered about, a lot of Air Raid Bunkers...









And Accommodation Buildings...







And a Scattering of Military buildings and Concrete Structures on a Headland above the Sea...





The once very remote area around here was changed forever during WW2 when a Chain Home Radar Base was built at Leirinbeg above Sango Bay at Durness in 1940,
Also known as Sangomore, Smoo Radar Station and Gee Station it was a Type 7000 Radar Station...

The Chain Home Radar Stations were a coastal network of Long range radar around the Coastline...


They could detect incoming Aircraft,speed ,height and a rough estimate of numbers, the Radar only worked for high level so a `Chain Low` radar was introduced for incoming low level aircraft detection,
Chain Home looked nothing like later radar equipment. The antenna did not rotate: the transmitting array was formed of fixed wires strung between 110 m (360 ft)-high metal towers which sent out a "floodlight" beam of radio energy about 100° wide...


Only One tower remains today complete in great Baddow, England...


The receiving array was on wooden towers about 73 m (240 ft) high, and consisted of two antennas at right angles to each other.
The receiving antennas were directional, so the signal strength received by each depended on the angle between it and the target. An operator would manually adjust a comparator device to find what angle to the target best matched the relative strengths of the two received signals. The angle of elevation to the target was estimated by similar comparison of the signal strengths from a second pair of receiving antennas closer to the ground, which produced a different sensitivity in elevation. The time delay of the echo determined the range to the target.

Today the Towers are gone, Border fencing and signage disappeared, but a few of the buildings are there,
Road side vehicle shed, possibly Home Guard...



Entrance Guard House...



Several of the buildings, including the transmitter/receiver block, with tracks and bunkers connected with the radar station with at mast bases...






















And a further two mast bases...











Many other buildings are also visible that like the Stations are today used by Locals for storage...






























In 1940 The chain Home radar bases came under attack by German Aircraft during The battle of Britain in 1940 but only one was destroyed, although it was thought it to be undeveloped compared to what was a further advanced radar was being used by Germany it was the eyes and ears of the RAF fighter squadrons as seen here in the famous 1969 Battle of Britain film the RAF were often scrambled and surprised the attackers... check out the remote controlled Stukas!...