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The farmhouse that hides Scotland's Secret Bunker, a stone house with a red pantile roof and flags.
Fife

Scotland's Secret Bunker

A Cold War nuclear command centre hidden 100 feet beneath an innocent-looking farmhouse near St Andrews, open to visitors from February to November.

Welcome

In the fields between St Andrews and Anstruther stands an ordinary-looking farmhouse, with a red pantile roof and a few flags outside.

It is not what it seems. Behind its door the way leads down to Scotland's Secret Bunker, a nuclear command centre hidden a hundred feet underground.

The bunker was built by the RAF in 1953, at the height of the Cold War, as a radar station called RAF Troywood, and it later became a nuclear command centre for government in the event of war. Its 24,000 square feet of rooms are laid out as they were: the command centre and plotting rooms, banks of switchboards and consoles, dormitories of bunks, a mess and a broadcasting studio.

It is chilling and fascinating, and it opens every day from February to November.

Not farBruach Bar15 milesSee itBruach Bar
Before you go

Open every day, 10am to 5pm, from February to November.

Where
Troywood, near St Andrews, KY16 8QH.
Depth
100 feet.
Built
1953.

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Where it is

At Troywood, in the countryside between St Andrews and Anstruther, KY16 8QH.

Close byThe East Neuk.
  1. The dining room at the Shoregate in Crail, with wooden tables and wishbone chairs on a herringbone floor and big windows onto the street.The Shoregate3 miles as the crow flies
  2. Weathered face carved into red sandstone rock, surrounded by autumn woodlandDunino Den3 miles 6 min by road
  3. The Wee Chippy on Shore Street, Anstruther, on a sunny day, with people eating at the tables outside its front.The Wee ChippyA family fish and chip restaurant and takeaway on Shore Street in Anstruther, frying fresh Scottish fish in beef dripping since 1999.3 miles as the crow flies
  4. CrailCrailThe ancient harbour village.4 miles 6 min by road
  5. Aerial view of a walled garden with circular hedge maze and vegetable plotsCambo GardensGardens and snowdrops.4 miles 8 min by road
  6. AnstrutherAnstrutherThe fishing village and its museum.5 miles 9 min by road
Directions
Woman in red dress stands beneath "The Beehive Crail" shop signShoppingThe Beehive, Crail3.8 miles
Whitewashed cottage with blue door, steps up to Crail Pottery, sign reading "OpenShoppingCrail Pottery3.8 miles
Cooked lobster halves on a white plate atop a wooden picnic tableRestaurantsReilly and Sons Lobster Hut3.9 miles
Coffee, a cappuccino and a square of tablet on a wooden table in the tearoom's courtyard, with blue fencing, pot plants and the sea beyond.CafeCrail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom3.9 miles
Wooden ladder rises through a stone dovecote's spiralling nesting boxes to daylight aboveAttractionsThe Priory Doocot, Crail3.9 miles
Timber lodge with covered veranda and hanging flower baskets overlooking open fieldsRestaurantsSt Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company4.2 miles
Anstruther Fish Bar's blue frontage, marked winner of Takeaway of the YearRestaurantsAnstruther Fish Bar5.2 miles
The front of Craig Millar @ 16 West End in St Monans: its sign above white-framed windows hung with flower baskets, behind a whitewashed wall.RestaurantsCraig Millar @ 16 West End5.3 miles
Flags fly above Balcomie golf course, coastline stretching towards the seaAttractionsCrail Golfing Society5.7 miles

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The Daily for 22 October, from Scotland with love. An aerial view of the Kylesku Bridge curving across a sea loch at sunset, Sutherland

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Stay nearby

Places to stay near the bunker, and when each is next free.

An orange leather sofa draped with a sheepskin faces a stone fireplace beneath a timber ceiling, a staircase rising behind.The Old Stable
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 4 miles from Scotland's Secret Bunker
Free 25–27 OctThe Crow’s Nest, FifeThe Crow’s Nest
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Pittenweem
  • 4 miles from Scotland's Secret Bunker
Free 2–5 NovFifies, FifeFifies
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 4 miles from Scotland's Secret Bunker
Free 1–3 NovA stone cottage with red pantiled roofs and a gabled dormer sits behind a gravel courtyard, an apple tree in the foreground.Maybell Cottage
  • Sleeps 2
  • In Pittenweem
  • 4 miles from Scotland's Secret Bunker
Check datesPlaces to stayEvery stay in FifeAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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