September is Doors Open in the Highlands and I was intrigued to see the Council opening their Emergency Centre which occupies a 1941 built former RAF Bunker.

I duly visited the cleanest bunker I have ever seen to learn that it was built as the Filter Block that processed radar plots for the whole of Scotland & part of Northern England. Originally there were 3 bunkers there but the Ops & Comms bunkers have been demolished and built over.

Following the end of WW2 the Filter Block was used by the Civil Defence Organization then the ROC before being taken over by the Council who spend £260 000 in 1988 adding NBC protection and an underground generator.

Internally the major alteration has been to floor the 2 storey Filter Room to make a large conference room on the upper floor and an ops room on the lower floor. The building has been used in anger on a number of occasions to deal with disasters (oil spills, flash floods, major fires) and is home to the Highland Help Line. It is also in frequent use as a meeting facility - apparently taking people from their office environment and 'locking' them underground concentrates the mind!

The building is now listed (Grade B). You will be pleased to hear that the Emergency Planning Officer is very aware of the bunker's history and provided an 11 page leaflet with a detailed description of 'filtering'.

Richard Jenner