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The town of Thurso on the north coast of Scotland was a sleepy fishing community before the dawn of the Nuclear Age, when its population trebled within just a few years. The construction of a nuclear power station at nearby Dounreay was the cause of Thurso’s expansion, as people flocked from across the country to take up new jobs there. Nuclear energy was an exciting development for what was in the 1950s a relatively poor country, promising employment and cheaper energy for millions. But this futuristic new power source also made Scotland a target.
A new exhibition at the country’s national museum in Edinburgh takes a look at the history of Scotland during the Cold War, focusing both on the transformative effects of nuclear power and what the threat of conflict meant for its people. It has some memorable artefacts on show, reflecting the military, social, and political dynamics of the time.
By virtue of her geography, Scotland was almost equidistant between the United States and what was then the Soviet Union. And with so many ports providing access to both the North Sea and the Atlantic, the country became the ideal home for several important military installations for more than 40 years. It was already populated with British defence hubs and intelligence-gathering stations, which were revived after the end of the Second World War, and the Cold War saw the opening of several new American military bases, each of which was vital to NATO’s European defence policy.
At the Holy Loch near Dunoon, American nuclear- powered submarines, carrying Polaris missiles, were docked; while further north, RAF Edzell housed part of the American army’s High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) Network, which was used to track targets worldwide. After all, no enemy ship hoping to attack in the North Atlantic could do so without first passing the long Scottish coastline.
But all this military activity put the country on the frontline. A chilling map on display early in the exhibition, of the central belt of Scotland – where the majority of the population lives – shows through coloured concentric circles just how much devastation would have been caused in the event of a nuclear attack. One warhead alone would have wiped out a city many times larger than Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Emblems and souvenirs
A nuclear war would have been over within days, if not hours, so the country had to be prepared for the aftermath. The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was one organisation set up in the 1950s in response to the threat of an attack. Similar to the Home Guard during the Second World War, it had some 24,000 members at its peak, who were stationed throughout the country in spots as remote as Shetland and the Cornish Coast.
The exhibition has some interviews with former ROC volunteers, such as Kim Foden, once a chief observer for the Corps. She and her colleagues were trained to snap into action in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, to record radiation levels, report on ground conditions, and provide data to scientists. ‘Getting information could be the key to saving lives,’ Foden said – although fortunately her training was never put to use.
Further south than Shetland, at the RAF Leuchars Combined Operations Centre in Fife, the threat posed by suspicious planes, ships, and subs lurking around the Scottish coast was continually assessed. The exhibition contains some artefacts from the centre, such as a helpful guidebook for recognising enemy aircraft. This was crucial, as any misidentifications could be deadly, as was chillingly demonstrated by the Korean Air Lines flight 007, which was mistaken for a military aircraft and shot down by the Soviets over the Sea of Japan in 1983.
The exhibition looks, too, at the lives of the many thousands of American personnel stationed in Scotland during the Cold War, some of whom had their own tartans commissioned as a souvenir of their time in the country. The Polaris military tartan was the first, designed in 1964 for Captain Walter F Schlech, commander of the submarine squadron at Faslane. Its mix of dark blues and greens represented the naval uniform and the depths of the oceans.
There are some Soviet artefacts as well, including the large emblem of a hammer and sickle from a Latvian factory-fishing ship, known as a Klondyker, which was gifted to the people of Shetland in the early 1990s. Old Baltic fishing boats had a habit of breaking down, with crews forced to port in rural Scottish communities for help. Many of these fishermen developed lasting bonds with locals.
Officially, though, the Russians were still the enemy, and the Soviet Union repaid the compliment by monitoring activities in Scotland closely. Some of the most detailed maps of Western countries ever produced were made by the Soviets during the Cold War, in anticipation of having to invade. Next to the Klondyker emblem is a framed map of East Lothian, with towns like Haddington and Prestonpans rendered in Cyrillic.
Eat, drink, be merry
The latter part of the exhibition looks at how Scottish people reacted to the threat of nuclear war. Various ineffectual government booklets, such as Protect and Survive, which encouraged families to hide under their dining tables in the event an attack, were ridiculed by organisations like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which was very active in the country throughout the period.
Campaigners went on protest marches and held sit-ins at sites such as Faslane, with the peace camp there, established in 1982, now the longest continually occupied camp of its kind in the world. Members of CND and other groups came from all walks of life, but there were many veterans and young mothers concerned for their children.
One such woman was Kristin Barrett, devoted anti-nuclear campaigner from the age of 17. She participated in the 1982 Peace March from Inverness to Glasgow, and frequently sold campaign paraphernalia, such as badges, from her self-made pram stall. Many of the badges are in the exhibition. ‘Britain needs jobs, not bombs,’ one reads. ‘Cut Trident not teachers,’ says another. ‘Eat, drink, and be merry. Tomorrow we may be radioactive.’
Visitors leave the exhibition by a door. Not just any door, but a steel blast portcullis from a now-closed anti-aircraft operations room in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow. It would have certainly provided more protection than a dining table or a home-made garden shelter.
The exhibition is relatively small, tucked away in a corner of one of the most beautiful museums in Scotland. But it gives a good insight into how a small northern European country reluctantly came to play an outsized role in a conflict that engulfed the entire world.
Cold War Scotland
Until 26 January 2025
National Museum of Scotland, Special Exhibition Gallery 2, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1JF
www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions/cold-war-scotland
+44 (0) 30 0123 6789
All images: National Museums Scotland
WORTH CHECKING OUT… upcoming events and exhibitions
EVENT
IWM History Festival 2024
23-24 November 2024
IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire, CB22 4QR, UK
http://www.iwm.org.uk/events/iwm-duxford/iwm-history-festival
£50
The Imperial War Museum’s annual history festival returns for two days this November at the historic Duxford airfield. Visitors will have the chance to meet popular historians, such as Damien Lewis and Dr Helen Fry, as they discuss their newest books. Personal tours of the historic site are also available: Dilip Sarkar is running one around Duxford’s Operations Room, revealing the airfield’s key role in determining the outcome of the Battle of Britain.
EXHIBITIONS
The Impending Crisis: how slavery caused the Civil War
Ongoing
American Civil War Museum, Historic Tredegar, Richmond, VA 23219, US
https://acwm.org/the-impending-crisis/
$18 (adult)
‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ So said Abraham Lincoln in 1858, two years before the outbreak of the American Civil War. Launched in April this year at the Civil War Museum’s Historic Tredegar site, this major new exhibition explores why the issue of slavery sparked a conflict that lasted five years and reshaped the country’s future – and how Americans viewed it in the context of faith, politics, and patriotism.
Dover Castle Under Siege
Ongoing
Castle Hill, Dover, Kent, CT16 1HU, UK
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/dover-castle/dover-castle-under-siege/
£25.90 (adult)
In 1216, rebel barons unhappy with King John offered the English throne to Prince Louis of France. Louis took up the offer, marching his army through swathes of southern England. But Dover Castle refused to surrender, withstanding two epic sieges. This new exhibition, with interactive displays and reopened medieval tunnels, explores how the Castle became a major thorn in the side of the French invasion.
The Angels of Mons: beliefs and apparitions
Until 11 May 2025
Mons Memorial Museum, Boulevard Dolez, 51A, 7000 Mons, Belgium
https://musees-expos.mons.be/
€9 (adult)
The legend of the Angels of Mons has it that the figure of St George, accompanied by celestial archers or angels, appeared above British soldiers during the battle there on 23 August 1914, saving their lives. Inspired by a story by writer Arthur Machen, the legend was quickly adopted back in Britain, where society was in dire need of hope in the early days of the First World War. Now, 110 years on, this exhibition attempts to analyse the popularity of the myth and understand why, in times of war, people turn to the supernatural.
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