Moretonhampstead ROC Post

There's a Cold War bunker sitting under a Devon hillside near Moretonhampstead, about eight miles south-west of Exeter, and it's properly eerie. This was an ROC (Royal Observer Corps) post - one of hundreds built across Britain during the 1960s to monitor nuclear fallout. You descend a metal staircase into a reinforced concrete chamber barely taller than you can stand upright in. The walls are lined with monitoring equipment, maps, and the kind of switchboards that belonged in another era. It's genuinely atmospheric and claustrophobic in the best way.

The post operated from 1961 onwards, staffed by volunteers who'd have spent days underground in the event of nuclear war. Walking through those cramped spaces, you get a visceral sense of Cold War paranoia. History enthusiasts will spend a good hour here; families with restless kids might find thirty minutes enough. It's the sort of thing that sticks with you - the banality of catastrophe preparation, all those dials and procedures for an attack that never came.

Access can be tricky - it's not always open to casual visitors, so ring ahead or check locally. The nearest proper base would be Barley Meadow Touring Park or Woodland Springs, both within five miles, making this a decent half-day excursion between exploring Dartmoor's higher walks. It's not glitzy or tourist-heavy, which is rather the point. A genuinely unusual afternoon.