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,
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
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...
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...
