Site Records

SiteName: Dunnet Head Coast Defence U-Boat (CDU) Radar Station

Dunnet Head
Caithness
OS Grid Ref: ND204766

Sub Brit site visit 24th June 2003

Site interpretation by Nick Catford

Dunnet Head is a public open space with free access to the radar buildings most of which are open. Five buildings remain on the site together with the underground Barrock Royal Observer Corps post built in 1959. The largest building is the operations block with four concrete bases at the western end which were the mountings for the 35' high gantry.

A short distance to the west is the power house and behind it the stand-by set house. The station was never connected to the mains supply so both these buildings would have housed a diesel generator. The stand-by set house has an open area to one side surrounded by a blast wall. The fuel tanks might have been located here.

South west of the operations block, at the end of a track is a building with double wooden doors that was obviously designed to house a vehicle so this was probably an MT shed. Close by a small building with a blast protected entrance was the IFF cubicle. The term IFF derives from the words 'Identification Friend or Foe. IFF allowed a radar operator to identify friendly aircraft. A transponder was fitted in the aircraft that responded to the signal from the radar station causing an udentifiable variation on the radar screen in the radar staion.