The Balnakailly Bunker & The Generator And The Bute Forest During The WarÂ
The Balnakailly Bunker & The Generator And The Bute Forest During The WarÂ
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The main control centre for the decoy village was the Balnakailly Command Bunker, hidden deep inside the woods. While people today usually visit the one main concrete building, the military actually built a small network of three concrete bunkers across the forest to run the site safely.
The main bunker (Balnakailly Bunker) was divided into two rooms:
- The Generator Room
This room held powerful petrol engines. Because the remote forest had no normal electricity in 1941, these generators were needed to power all the fake city lights down in the fields. Thick electrical cables ran out from this room, through trenches in the ground, and directly to the wooden light frames.
2. The Operations Room
2. The Operations Room
This is where the Royal Navy sailors stood watch. Working next to loud engines and explosive fuel was dangerous, so engineers built a vertical escape hatch with iron rungs inside the concrete wall. If a bomb blast or fire blocked the main door, the sailors could climb out through the roof. This room also held the telephone line used to receive air-raid warnings from the mainland.
During the war, the rugged hills and ancient oak trees of Bute Forest provided perfect natural camouflage to hide these secret buildings from enemy planes. The forest was also a very safe choice for a decoy site because it was completely empty. A local farming community called the Balnakailly Settlement used to live there, but it had been abandoned since 1850. Because no civilians lived in the woods by 1941, the military knew that even if German bombs did hit the decoy lights, no innocent people would be hurt.
Since the German pilots missed the decoy completely, Bute Forest was never bombed, and the trees and landscape survived the war untouched. Today, people can still see the moss-covered stone ruins of the old farm before stepping inside the concrete generator rooms to explore Bute's quiet wartime secret.
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