Inside secret UK nuclear bunker - and when it became the centre of a 3-day siege

28 January 2024 , 11:19

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Part-time soldier Ronald McDonald began a three-day siege after barricading himself inside a disused nuclear bunker (Image: DAILY MIRROR)

A major Scottish tourist attraction was once the location of a major three-day siege after a soldier barricaded himself inside.

Former part-time soldier Ronald McDonald began a three-day siege in 2014 inside a disused nuclear control centre, now known to history buffs as The Secret Bunker, located near Anstruther, in Fife. McDonald, a paranoid schizophrenic, admitted breaking into the complex and causing £100,000 worth of damage to the inside of the structure. He entered the bunker on June 8 of that year after driving there in a stolen JCB excavator.

McDonald, who briefly served in the Territorial Army, had armed himself with a deactivated rifle he found in the bunker, but police stormed the building two days later on June 10 after negotiations broke down. McDonald, of no fixed address, also admitted stealing the JCB from Cupar Trading Estate and threatening police officers with the imitation rifle. When police made contact with McDonald, he asked for a cigarette, before they swooped in on him from the rear of the building.

At the time, Edward Russell, the procurator fiscal, told a court: ''It became clear to the police that entering the premises would be a major undertaking. Over the next three days he was seen at various stages in the premises wandering about and removing items from walls.''

The Bunker is some 135 feet underground, protected by an outer shell of 10-feet-thick concrete, reinforced every six inches with one-inch-thick tungsten rods (DAILY MIRROR)

Scotland’s Secret Bunker was built at the start of the Cold War in 1951 underneath an innocent-looking “farmhouse” near St. Andrews, Fife, as part of the British response to worsening relations with the Soviet Union. Now a tourist attraction, the Bunker offers visitors the chance to understand what life would have been like during and after a nuclear attack.

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According to British Heritage, the Bunker is some 135 feet underground, protected by an outer shell of 10-feet-thick concrete, reinforced every six inches with one-inch-thick tungsten rods. For increased protection, the structure is lined with brick, covered with netting and soaked with pitch to provide a secure shell. The excavated earth laid over the structure with concrete rafts at intervals acts as another barrier. In all, it is estimated that some 45,000 tons of concrete was used in the Bunker’s construction.

The bunker initially provided accommodation and administration space, but later housed food stores (DAILY MIRROR)

The “farmhouse,” which is built of concrete and steel, doubled as the guardhouse and the entrance. Initially, it provided accommodation and administration space, but later housed food stores, with the roof space being utilized as a storage tank containing 2,400 gallons of water. And although the Bunker would not have survived a direct hit, it was designed to withstand the effects of a bomb landing as close as three miles away.

Four years after the siege, Ronald McDonald was released from a mental hospital (DAILY MIRROR)

Meanwhile in 2008, four years after the siege, Ronald McDonald was released from a mental hospital - and even found love with a new girlfriend Pauline Hepburn, 47. Revealing all to the Daily Record, McDonald said: "Pauline and I met about three months ago when we were both in hospital in Dunfermline. I went in the bunker with my own gun but I didn't know that I would be in there for so long."

But McDonald insisted he had left the past behind, continuing: "I'm different now. I don't touch guns. I have got the British Standard safety kite mark tattooed on my arm. I am a 42-year-old man and I am not about to go around making terrorism threats."

Joseph Gamp