Mankind has always harbored a macabre fascination with the end of the world. Doomsday predictions litter humanity’s history, and for each new prophet promising the end of days, you could find a disappointed congregation, maligning the world’s existential persistence when his promises of fire and brimstone have failed to manifest.
For a long time, doomsday prophecies often centered around astrological events, transitional dates between centuries or millennia, and various religious beliefs regarding higher powers and their interventions in the affairs of man… but in recent decades, that spiritual sense of foreboding has been replaced by a very practical one. The Baby Boomer generation grew up under the very real specter of nuclear war, conducting duck and cover drills in school houses and devoting tax dollars to massive underground bunkers America hoped could deliver its government unscathed to the other side of the world’s end. For the first time in mankind’s history, the fear of the end of the world was finally matched by our capability to actually bring it about.
It’s little wonder, then, that many of the men and women that grew up training to climb under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack have now taken to an often-scoffed at hobby: “prepping.” Preppers come in a variety of sorts, of course — ranging from the pragmatic to the delusional — but if there’s one thing just about every prepper will agree on, it’s that money can help you “be prepared” for the apocalypse a whole lot faster than good intentions.
If you’re able to secure a remote piece of land and outfit it with all the things you need to survive before the world ends, you’re in pretty good shape by most prepper’s standards — but if you’ve got the passion and the pocket book, there are some options that even put that idea to shame. Options like a surplus military SATCOM II intelligence gathering and communications post in Scotland, for instance.
The property, which is listed for sale at just $1.22 million (a bargain compared to most hardened facilities), has actually been on the market for some time — meaning you may be able to haggle the owners down a little if you’re on the market for your own rural military installation, complete with air filtration system to protect you from nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks. The facility is even hardened against electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that are known to render electronics unusable after a nuclear blast.
According to the listing:
SATCOM II Satellite Ground Listening Station is situated on the S side of the World War II airfield ( ) and B918 public road and set within a high double fenced compound. The Station stands on the former taxiway of the airfield.
Known locally as the ‘Golf Ball’ on account of the radome covered in fibre glass panels. The radome is linked by corridor to the equipment building and mess and recreation/office building. Within the ‘golf ball’ is a large dish antenna on a servo assisted rotating base, the mechanism allowing the dish to move up and down as well as around. The other buildings are connected by a main corridor which have NBC doors at each end. There is an emergency power generator room, containing two 180KW output diesel engines.
A MoD Police Post was built at a slightly later date near the main gate to guard and control the first fence line.
And in case your primary concern is nuclear attack, the sprawling 9 acre compound comes complete with a currently inactive NATO Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) early warning radar system aside from its complement of offices, garages, guard houses, living spaces and even recreational areas.
If all that isn’t enough to convince you that this property is just what you need to survive the end of days, the realtor points out that, until the world ends, this facility is also conveniently located near highway access for a short jaunt into town to resupply your stash of survival Twinkies. Check out the realtor’s listing if you think you may have found your new summer home.
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