It’s a good question. That’s why you’re here but before I can answer that fully, we have to travel back into the not so distant past. To a time when there was the “Cold War”. After World War 2 ended, a new enemy arose with a clash of cultures and ideas. There was us and there was the Russians (USSR). This however was a different kind of conflict. Both sides wearied by war and attrition needed time to rebuild and strengthen. By the time they had recovered the world had changed as both had now developed and owned Weapons of Mass Destruction. There is a problem with such weapons. The problem is that using them will ensure what is referred to as M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction). We all have a vision that when the bombs dropped during these days that was it. The world would have ended as both sides had more than enough weapons to eradicate each other. Now this is true that we had such numbers but why would we? Simple answer, total annilation means no one wins. It was never a option but did make good movies. There was however a realistic probability that they would have used them in limited exchanges, destroying important cities and military installations. But why didn’t they I hear you ask?

Let’s go back to M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction). If we were to drop a Nuclear Bomb on Moscow it would cause widespread devastation to that immediate area with a high loss of Life. However the Mushroom Cloud that is so Iconic with such weapons would carry radioactive particles up into Stratosphere and from there they would travel in the slip streams spreading back all the way to our own front door. Think of the Chernobyl Disaster of 1986 when a Russian Nuclear Reactor “melted Down”. This was smaller in effect than a Nuclear Warhead but it affected a large area throughout Europe and into Britain. It’s the Radiation that is the big problem. The particles can remain inert for extremely long periods of time. They cause radiation poising when exposed to. Now it’s a strange thing that sometimes being exposed to radiation can be a good thing (yes, you read that right), we call it Chemotherapy. Used in small doses it can help destroy cancerous tissue, although it makes you seriously ill in the process but the body will recover in time when the treatment stops. Too much and it’s fatal and that’s why radiation is so dangerous. After the Bombs fell you can’t have the general population exposed to copious amounts of radiation. No country could cope with 40% plus of the population suffering from the effects. With this in mind, each nation developed a contingency plan for the dreadful event. A way of monitoring where the Bombs fell and the associated fallout patterns that would come with it. In Britain the Royal Observer Corps was given a new role. Over 1,500 small Nuclear Bunkers were built throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They formed a massive network to monitor and report such information. They were structured in clusters and assigned Call signs. One of these few remaining relics is the Dun 25 (Dundee Group – Post 25).

So in answer to the question. Dun 25 is a Royal Observer Corps Nuclear Monitoring Post. It is located in a field nested between the quaint village of Edzell and the local farm. It was last manned in 1991, prior to the Corps being stood down. The Objective of the Dun 25 Restoration Project is to return this post back to working order and allow Schools and Colleges studying the Cold War to come and experience an Operational Bunker.