For sale: des res with all mod cons - and Cold War bunker

Deep beneath it lies a spacious bomb-proof underground bunker, once one of Britain's most closely guarded military secrets, which played a crucial role at the height of the Cold War.

Built by the Ministry of Defence as an emergency communications centre in 1952, the bunker served as top-secret military command facility until the 1990s, when it was declared surplus to requirements and put up for sale.

The current owner, who has had it for 12 years, has now put the building and its "chamber of secrets" back on the market, with an asking price of 250,000.

Guard House itself has been converted into a comfortable family home, with a lounge, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, plus access by spiral staircase to the upper floor, where a second bedroom occupies almost the entire space.

A 328ft inclined tunnel will take the future owner along a sloping, narrow corridor into the 9,000sq ft Cold War bunker, protected by 10ft thick walls, complete with its own plant room for providing power in the event of nuclear attack.

The labyrinth of rooms on the main floor of the bunker includes a kitchen and toilet facilities, plus 12 other rooms of various dimensions, believed to have been used as operations rooms, bedrooms and dining facilities. And there is a mezzanine floor with a further nine rooms.

Solicitor Douglas Burnett, of Burnett and Company in Aberdeen, is selling the property. He said: "This is an opportunity to purchase a truly unique property. It's like nothing you will have ever seen before.

"The access to the bunker is adjacent to the lodge and descends almost 18 metres by a narrow, sloping corridor. It then transcends into a labyrinth of rooms with one area resembling a Second World War plotting centre or something out of the James Bond movie Dr No. There is a mezzanine floor where you look down on the operations area."

Mr Burnett went on: "I don't know whether the local people knew about the bunker during the Cold War, but they are certainly aware about it now."

He said more than 30 people had visited the property since it went on the market last week. "It is intriguing to consider what private use in this day and age such a vast underground facility could be utilised for," he said."

Much of the bunker's history is still shrouded in secrecy. According to the Secret Scotland website, it was built as an early warning radar station to provide coverage of the North Sea and north coast of Scotland, and give advance warning of the approach of any potential threats.

In 1968, it was taken over by the US Navy and operated in conjunction with the monitoring station at RAF Edzell, ten miles away, which closed in 1977. The bunker lay unused until 1984 when it was designated Reserve Headquarters for Group Headquarters and Sector Control for the Royal Observer Corps. It finally closed in 1993.

The website states: "Despite the US modification, the plant room remains in original condition and is the best surviving example of its type Most of the other rooms have been completely altered, there is a new kitchen and new toilets with one very strange anomaly; both the male and female toilets have a urinal."

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