Secret bunkers & war sites

51 places across Britain and Ireland

• Barnton QuarryEdinburgh · A Cold War bunker under Corstorphine Hill.
• Bawdsey RadarBawdsey Manor, Suffolk · The birthplace of radar, which helped win the Battle of Britain.
• Bentley PrioryStanmore, London · The headquarters that won the Battle of Britain.
• Bletchley ParkBletchley, Buckinghamshire · Where codebreakers cracked Enigma, sworn to secrecy for decades.
• Brackla BunkerBrackla Hill, Bridgend · A hidden bunker meant to run Wales after a nuclear war.
• Burlington, the Secret Underground CityCorsham, Wiltshire · A hidden city for 4,000 people, built to run Britain after a nuclear war.
• Castle ArchdaleLower Lough Erne, County Fermanagh · The flying boat base whose crew found the Bismarck.
• Churchill War RoomsWestminster, London · The underground rooms where Churchill ran the war.
• Clapham South Deep ShelterClapham, London · A wartime shelter that welcomed the Windrush generation.
• Coleshill and the Secret ArmyColeshill, Oxfordshire · Training ground for Britain's secret resistance army.
• Cultybraggan CampComrie, Perthshire · A prisoner-of-war camp for hardline Nazis, later with a nuclear bunker.
• DounreayNear Thurso, Caithness · A giant golf-ball reactor on Scotland's north coast.
• Drakelow TunnelsNear Kidderminster, Worcestershire · A secret underground factory that became a nuclear bunker.
• Fan Bay Deep ShelterWhite Cliffs of Dover, Kent · Wartime tunnels in the white cliffs, rediscovered in 2012.
• Flat HolmBristol Channel, off Cardiff · An island fort where the first radio signal crossed the sea.
• Fort DunreeLough Swilly, County Donegal · A clifftop fort guarding a deep-water lough.
• Fort Southwick and the D-Day TunnelsPortsdown Hill, Hampshire · The underground nerve centre for the naval side of D-Day.
• Greenham CommonNear Newbury, Berkshire · American cruise missiles, and the women's peace camp that refused to leave.
• Gruinard IslandGruinard Bay, Wester Ross · The 'anthrax island', poisoned for nearly 50 years.
• Hack Green Secret Nuclear BunkerNear Nantwich, Cheshire · A radar station that became a regional seat of government for nuclear war.
• Holy LochSandbank, near Dunoon, Argyll · Where American nuclear submarines lurked in a Scottish loch.
• InchkeithFirth of Forth · A fortress island where a king tested the language of babies.
• Island Farm, Camp 198Bridgend · The biggest escape by German prisoners in Britain.
• Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear BunkerNear Brentwood, Essex · A huge nuclear bunker hidden beneath an ordinary-looking bungalow.
• Loch Ewe and the Arctic ConvoysAultbea, Wester Ross · Where convoys gathered for 'the worst journey in the world'.
• Manod QuarryNear Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd · Where Britain's greatest paintings hid from Hitler inside a mountain.
• Orford NessNear Orford, Suffolk · A shingle spit of secret weapons tests, from radar to atomic bomb parts.
• PaddockDollis Hill, London · Churchill's secret back-up war rooms, hidden under a north London suburb.
• Porton DownNear Salisbury, Wiltshire · Britain's most secret science site.
• RAF Air Defence Radar MuseumNeatishead, Norfolk · A radar station watching the skies from the Second World War to the Cold War.
• RAF FylingdalesNorth York Moors, North Yorkshire · A missile early-warning station on the moors, once famous for its giant 'golf balls'.
• RAF HolmptonNear Withernsea, East Yorkshire · A Cold War radar bunker 120 feet underground, now open to explore.
• RAF Saxa VordUnst, Shetland · Britain's most northerly radar, watching for Soviet bombers.
• RAF Spadeadam and Blue StreakNear Gilsland, Cumbria · Where Britain tested its own space rocket on a remote moor.
• RAF Upper HeyfordUpper Heyford, Oxfordshire · A Cold War base for American nuclear bombers.
• Ramsgate TunnelsRamsgate, Kent · Miles of wartime shelters where some families lived for years.
• Scotland's Secret BunkerTroywood, near St Andrews, Fife · A command centre for the end of the world, under a Fife farmhouse.
• Spike IslandCork Harbour, County Cork · Ireland's 'Alcatraz', a fortress prison in Cork Harbour.
• The Churchill BarriersHolm to South Ronaldsay, Orkney · Causeways built to seal Scapa Flow after the Royal Oak disaster.
• The Commando MemorialSpean Bridge, Lochaber · Bronze commandos looking out over their training grounds.
• The Curragh 'K-Lines'The Curragh, County Kildare · A camp where neutral Ireland held British and German airmen side by side.
• The Denge Sound MirrorsGreatstone, Kent · Giant concrete 'ears' built to hear enemy aircraft coming.
• The Italian ChapelLamb Holm, Orkney · A beautiful chapel made from two huts and scrap by prisoners of war.
• The Kingsway TunnelsChancery Lane, London · A deep shelter that became a secret telephone exchange for the Cold War.
• The Maunsell Sea FortsRed Sands, Thames Estuary · Wartime forts on stilts that became pirate radio stations.
• The Principality of SealandRoughs Tower, off Felixstowe, Suffolk · A wartime sea fort that declared itself an independent country.
• The Shetland BusScalloway, Shetland · Fishing boats that secretly ferried agents to occupied Norway.
• The ÉIRE SignsMalin Head, County Donegal · Giant letters on the ground warning pilots they were over neutral Ireland.
• Western Approaches HQDerby House, Liverpool · The secret bunker that ran the Battle of the Atlantic.
• Worth Matravers RadarWorth Matravers, Dorset · Where wartime scientists tested radar that changed the war.
• York Cold War BunkerHolgate, York · Where volunteers would have tracked nuclear explosions and fallout.