Secret bunker and former Cold War listening station sold

It was built during the Cold War, a seemingly ordinary cottage on the North East coast but with a tightly guarded secret. The Guard House sits on a hilltop near Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire - a pleasant enough home with stunning sea views. But unbeknown for many years, it was built in the 1950s by the Ministry of Defence to monitor the North Sea for suspicious activity - and that the property concealed a 10,000 sq ft underground bunker only accessible by a long fortified tunnel. The Guard House, which was later acquired by the US Navy, now has a new owner after being sold last month for an undisclosed sum. Many uses were proposed for the property as it went on the market, including a mushroom farm, wine cellar and a data storage centre. But is understood that the buyer, from England, is a military history enthusiast who may bring The Guard House back to its former Cold War glory. Scott Young, of Shepherds Chartered Surveyors in Aberdeen, said: “We did have a large level of interest in the property and will I sell another one like this? Probably not. “It is a fairly unique property and it was fairly tricky to sell. “These were designed to look like a normal house to the untrained eye and certainly it gives no clue to the subterranean part of the property. “It is going to take quite a lot of capital and time to restore it back to how it was but the new owner was keen to see what he could do with it.” The old communications switchboard is still in place in the Guard House, with several other pointers to its military past. An operational crane to send supplies to the bunker was included in the selling price, with the 160ft access tunnel protected by 10ft-thick walls and sliding steel doors, offering “an unusual level of security”. The Guard House has was withdrawn from service in 1993, after it was used as a headquarters for locally-based military. It sat empty for several years before being turned into a private residence. The new owner was unavailable for comment at the time of press.