Underground Bunkers

These were made by Royal Engineers, so discreetly that some of the farmers on whose land they were built didn’t know of their existence. The Culvie bunker was near the top of Culvie Hill, the one at Marnoch was built just below the graveyard and the Forglen one in the Mountblairy woods just before the river bank.
This photo shows the possible site of the Marnoch one.

On Culvie Hill the bunker entrance was a box of heather with a rabbit burrow type hole giving access to the keyhole. A step ladder led down to the bunker which had brick built walls lined with white painted 9-inch boards to make it light, and was high enough to stand up in. Lil Anderson remembers her father Gilbert Brodie lined the bunker with corrugated iron which after the war was left lying in the field after the bunker was dismantled.

The map shows the location of the bunker. The entrance was a box of heather with a rabbit burrow type hole giving access to the keyhole. A step ladder led down to the bunker which had brick built walls lined with white painted 9-inch boards to make it light, and was high enough to stand up in. Lil Anderson remembers her father Gilbert Brodie lined the bunker with corrugated iron which after the war was left lying in the field after the bunker was dismantled.
There were two sets of bunks made with timber and netting wire, a water container and a primus stove for which the Sgt Major supplied the paraffin. Food had to be pinched – eggs, snare rabbits, etc – and sometimes Jack brought pies and various other perishable goods from the bakery.
Jack Stewart confirmed the Culvie bunker was certainly not as neat and tidy as this recreation.

The views below follow a walk to the site as it was in 2011:
1. View up the Newton of Culvie road towards Culvie Hill
2. Looking towards Newton of Culvie and the site of the bunker.
3. Looking from the plantation towards the site of the bunker.
4. The site of the bunker and the ditch to which it was connected.
5. View to the south and site of the bunker.
6. View north to the plantation where the lookout was sited.
7. View from the lookout towards Portsoy.
8. View from the lookout towards Boyndie.