Northern Ireland’s sole nuclear fallout bunker, which was built at the end of the cold war, has been put up for sale at £575,0000.
The heavily fortified underground shelter at an industrial estate outside Ballymena in County Antrim was designed to host 235 VIPs from the province in the event of Northern Ireland being targeted by Soviet missiles.
Built in 1987 and completed just after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, when the USSR was beginning to dissolve, the shelter at Woodside Road was one of the most sophisticated nuclear bunkers to be built in the latter stages of the cold war. Bunkbeds, showers, a television studio, meeting rooms and a fully equipped stainless steel kitchen complete with tinned food were all part of the facilities. It was designed to house a post-nuclear regional government headquarters to run whatever would have been left of Northern Ireland.
The shelter, set on 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of land, is owned by the Department of the First and Deputy First Minister in the power-sharing executive.
When first told about the bunker, the deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, said he was unaware of it and hoped his name was not on the list of VIPs selected to go there in the event of an attack.
The estate agents selling the bunker said the Ballymena location was chosen for its proximity to the M2 motorway and other transport links between the cities of Belfast and Derry.
Andrew Fraser, of Lambert Smith Hampton estate agents, said the firm was thrilled to sell such an unusual property,
which was “believed to be one of the last and most technically advanced buildings of its kind ever built in the UK”.
He suggested it could be used as a tourist attraction, a media centre or a storage facility; or for its original purpose.
“The bunker is in a very good state of repair and has been well maintained over the years. It has everything that would be needed in a state of emergency,” he said.
