Largs Probus Club recently visited a 'secret' underground monitoring post to find out more about its history.
The Skelmorlie Secret Bunker was part of a massive network of underground monitoring posts established in the 1950s and 1960s by the UK Government, which asked the Royal Observer Corps to monitor and report on radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear attack.
Volunteer Frank Alexander, who runs the bunker - now a museum - spoke to members of the club about the history of the Royal Observer Corps and the bunker, which was restored back to its original condition in 2004.
The monitoring post and museum are now open to visitors at weekends on a pre-booked basis by telephoning him on 07513 504115.
The members were particularly interested in the instrumentation Frank demonstrated to determine ground zero, blast and fallout effects of a nuclear strike on the west of Scotland, which were state of the art at the time but have now been superseded by modern technology.
A vote of thanks was given by Norrie Hollywood, who thanked Frank for giving what was an entertaining and well delivered talk on a very interesting subject.
The club will next meet at the Willowbank Hotel on Wednesday, August 16 at 10am when Gary Ennis will speak on Facebook.
Men over the age of 50 who are retired, or nearing retirement, are welcome to join the Club by completing the contact form on largsprobus.org.uk.
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