Secret Scotland - Pitreavie Traditional Geocache
Secret Scotland - Pitreavie
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is one of a series dedicated to secret places of one kind or another and is located next to a pillbox to the south of Dunfermline. See www.secretscotland.org.uk for other secret places of this type.
So what is this secret place? Well it's the fenced off floodlit compound to the north of the cache site, the one with the large grass covered mound of earth in the middle. This is all that remains of the entrance to the former NATO Northern Command Headquarters, a huge underground bunker.
In 1938, two Royal Air Force officers, looking for a suitable site for a planned joint Maritime and Airforce Headquarters came across Pitreavie castle, abandoned for 100 years, overgrown with ivy, the grounds unkempt and colonies of bats inhabiting the upper rooms. However, the fabric of the building was sound, the grounds extensive, and most important of all, it was close to the RN base at Rosyth. The Air Ministry purchased the castle for £12,306, to which they then added a concrete outbuilding housing kitchens, a bar and a dining room.
Most importantly, in the castle grounds, they began consruction of a vast underground bunker so extensive that it was not completed until 1941. By that time it contained ops rooms, observation galleries, and a communications centre. Outside there was an elecrical generating plant, disguised as a church, and the usual collection of barracks and other service buildings.
It was from here that the battle of the Atlantic was controlled. Enigma mesages decrypted at Bletchley park flowed into the building and deep underground, plotters moved wooden ships and wooden u-boats across a giant Atlantic chart table whilst out on the real thing, men and women lived or died as a result.
One hundred and twenty feet below ground, the famous Arctic convoys to Murmansk and Archangel were planned and it was from here that the fatal order to scatter convoy PQ17 was given. This was in reponse to what was only a change of berth for the pocket battleship Tirpitz but was misinterpreted as her putting to sea. Knowing the carange that such a vessel could do to an unprotected convoy the order to scatter was given, resulting in the loss of 25 out of 36 vessels with virtually no survivors. It was also from here that both the search and final missions to destoy the Turpitz were co-ordinated.
With the formation of NATO IN 1948, Pitreavie became the headquarters of the North Atlantic Area and was the base for Commander, Air Forces, North Atlantic and Admiral, Naval Forces, North Atlantic. It was also from here that the fighters of RAF Leuchars and Kinloss were scrambled in response to incursion flights by the nuclear bombers of the Soviet union. Maritime search and rescue for the north sea and northern atlantic were also co-ordinated from here.
The bunker was given it's most recent refit during the 1960s and so by 1996 was scheduled for a major overhaul when it became the victim of associated defence cuts at Rosyth and was instead closed. All of the equipment was removed and the Royal Engineers given the job of ensuring that the entrance remained sealed forever. It's all still down there though, a deep, dark, and empty labyrinth. Should future generations decide we must have gone to great lengths to protect a valuable treasure, and so dig down, they are sure in for a disappointment.
Not surprisingly both this bunker and the nearby Rosyth naval base featured on the recently declassified 1972 list of probable Soviet nuclear targets and would have received 3 x 1 megaton ground bursts. More then enough to spoil your day.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Oruvaq vil ng pbeare.