After the Barrhead News revealed how Cowan Park in Barrhead has a hidden wartime past we decided to look into one of Barrhead’s better known, and more sinister war-time sites.

Beyond the boundary wall of Ferenze Golf Club, and accessed by a steep path from Grahamston Road in Barrhead, lies an unassuming concrete square jutting from the heather.

A steel hatch leads into a miniature nuclear bunker, a cold war observation post set-up by the Royal Observation Corps, and is one amongst hundreds that dot Scotland, once dedicated to spotting Soviet nuclear bombers.

The site was closed in 1991 after the collapse of the former USSR.

However standing at the site it is clear to see why it was chosen, the view down the Levern Valley extends across greater Glasgow and beyond.

Now the site is strewn with rubbish, and has become a popular drinking spot in the summer with youths from across Barrhead, known locally as “the bomb shelter.” The site was manned by volunteers after it was opened in April, 1965.

Sadly, the bunker itself is now welded shut after its contents were torched in a vandal’s fire.

A visitor to the site from Subterranean Britannia recorded what he saw on three separate occasions, saying: “The site is overgrown but all surface features remain intact with the beige paint flaking badly. A metal dome on the ventilation shaft indicates this was a master post. The ventilation louvres have been replaced and are unusually large. “Internally the post is a mess but much remains including: table, shelf, cupboard, twin bunks with mattresses, eight jerry cans (some full), two folding wooden chairs, two other chairs, ROC training manual, floor standing Dexion rack, three pairs of Wellington boots, two plastic bowls, battery box, BT junction box (detached) and wiring, paper rack, pipe for aerial pump, light, teapot, papers/posters, long shelf on wall, cleaning materials, two duffle coats, tins of food, crockery, candle holder and a bracket on the ladder for storing the aerial mast.

“When visited in February 2005 the post had been severely damaged by fire internally. When visited in 2007 the hatch had been welded.” Currently there are no plans to restore the post, however dozens across Britain have been restored.

Pictures provided courtesy of Subterranean Britannia.