Sheep On A Shoestring Part 81

New Bailer ! , cold war bunker,sheep & combines, A look around the countryside and the farms where I am working in the Ards Peninsula !

[@paulthompson8467]

Brilliant drone footage Ivan just love harvest time 👍

[@TheLowcountryboys]

It's not that often you would see the Mourn mountains looking so blue or the lough for that matter !

[@ivanmckeown5296]

Hi Ivan. The bunker is one of several hundred places built around the UK as monitoring posts in the event of full-scale nuclear war. They were operated by members of the Royal Observer Corps and if a war broke out with the former USSR, the corps member would descend and begin sending back sampled radioactive readings to central stations around the UK. These large stations were manned 24/7 and intercepted activities carried out by Russia and watched for possible missile launches. Gillian and I visited one of these major underground and formerly secret facilities in Scotland in May. It has several levels, spans several acres and once houses 300 ROC personnel. In the small bunker you visited (I know it well, but that's another story) the ROC officer would have had food and uncontaminated water for about 3 weeks. They would have stayed I underground and their reports would have helped the UK reaction to attack by knowing where the fallout from the bombs was spreading. I know someone who was in the ROC and manned one of these in exercises. Sadie McKee who lived On the Ballybryan Rd, had another, smaller version she had to send readings back from.Every bunker had a private BT line connected to the central hub. On the wall of the bunker you visited - which was closed down in 1991 after the fall of the USSR - is a final message written with drawing pins. It says, "We won". Had there been nuclear war, the BBC had a chilling pre-recorded message. Here is how it began: 'This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own house. Remember there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away. By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourself to greater danger.'

[@TheLowcountryboys]

Ah - ha ... I remember folk saying it was some sort of a fall out recording bunker but did not want to say that in case someone came back and told me I was totally wrong, but there was a shop owner in Ballyhalbert called McHaffey and I think she was an operative in that bunker story, any how Professor Andrew Coulter / AC Tyres was my mentor in the bunker story !

[@miriamshanks8648]

Thanks for the info, very interesting.

[@McferranGlenn]

BIG WORK THERE IVAN

[@trevormcburney948]

Harvest time in one of the most beautiful , and historic, parts of the world - expertly captured on film for all of us to enjoy. Well done Ivan!

[@TheLowcountryboys]

I can't recall my teachers ever say I was an expert at anything.. my father in his frustration while trying to help with our homeworks exclaimed "ah hey reared a batch o numskulls" .. he always reverted to the Ulster-Scots in serious situations but it made us laugh, but the lough & mountains had such a deep blue hue that morning , Thanks Ivan.

[@davidcooke8002]

Hi Ivan. Do you sell any ewe lambs? There're so quiet and clean looking.

[@TheLowcountryboys]

just gettin the wellies on to dose the ewe lambs , they are quiet but when you go to handel them it can be a different story .. yip we try and sell the ewe lambs to breeders if at all possible .. Thanks Ivan

[@greedybadger1]

Interesting about bunker though I wouldn’t like to have been down there working back in the day.

[@TheLowcountryboys]

I might need to use it if Mr. Putin gets itchy fingers !