Orford Ness

Last week, to fill the hours before the new netbook arrived, Kay and I went over to Orford Ness on the Suffolk Coast. It is a vast shingle spit owned by the National Trust. For the previous 100 years it was used for various highly secret experiments into radar, aerial bombing and even testing nuclear bomb detonators. These were tested to destruction to make sure they could cope with all the heat, cold, vibrations, etc that they may be subjected to during their trip to wherever they might have to go.

When the military closed the site, they 'surface cleansed' the site of unexploded ordnance and stripped out all the buildings. They didn't go below the surface and there are probably tons of uxb's still to be discovered.

Now, the Ness is a nature reserve and visitors are told to stay on the designated paths for obvious reasons and the buildings are usually out of bounds too. However on the day we visited, many of the buildings were open to show off a few bits of commissioned works of art (not my cup of tea) but it was fascinating to see inside the experimental labs, etc.

It's an amazing place and only a visit will do but I attach few photos to give you a flavour.

Spooky, or what?