Exercise Great Heart

  Exercise Great Heart was one of a number of war games held here at the Bunker and ran from the afternoon of Friday 6th May to Saturday 7th May 1988. Great Heart simulated the action that would have been taken had the Cold War turned hot and forced those involved to confront the realities of Nuclear War.

The existence of the Bunker was a closely guarded secret in 1988 therefore participants were not really told where they were going and asked not to disclose their involvement, even to close family. Some officials refused to attend as they felt they would choose to be with their families in the event of all out war. Most felt that there was a moral choice to be made between duty to Country and duty to family.

In order to make the experience as real as possible, a narrative of bomb blasts was established and staff adopted the roles associated with plotting these explosions, predicting fall out and warning the fictional surviving population.

Staff from the Meteorological Office were present in the bunker to provide accurate weather forecasts to Government Scientific Advisors who plotted fallout from each bomb on the large charts seen in the their cabin at the Command Centre. This data was interpreted to calculate percentage population loss and Great Heart’s exercise scenario stated that Edinburgh and the Central Belt had sustained the heaviest losses.

Information was relayed to representatives from the Military and Emergency Services who devised strategies for dealing with the civilian population above ground. They were forced to direct limited resources and couldn’t help everyone, given that much of Scotland had been laid waste. Representatives from the emergency services had to decide whether they’d go into the most radioactive areas and save one or two lives or conserve resources for less affected areas.

Military organisations, such as the Civil Defence Corps put forward proposals for feeding large numbers of displaced and injured civilians and for the maintenance of law and order in a destabilised society.

Staff from the Scottish Office press department wrote material to be broadcast from the bunker by senior civil servants. Their programmes never went live but included fallout predictions, and information on the extent of the destruction. The intention was to keep morale as possible given the circumstances, but those in the worst hit areas may not have been guaranteed help. Decisions were made on how much of the truth should be broadcast to the nation and how to phrase announcements to make the best of the situation. Programmes were as up beat as possible and music was played from the diverse collection of Classical and Popular LPs still on display.

Not surprisingly, Exercise Great Heart sparked fierce debate and forced participants to make the kind of moral choices that they would have had to make during actual war. It is a chilling reminder of just how near the world got to nuclear war and how closely Scotland and this bunker were involved.


Much of our displays are enhanced by generous donations that help to tell the story of what it was like to live and work in the bunker. This year we have had several interesting new accessions including a series of photographs taken at Cellardyce RAF base where RAF personnel stationed at the bunker lived whilst working here at Troywood. These photos have been displayed in the RAF room and we hope that some they may bring back memories for some of our visitors.

Further donations include a collection of uniform from the Civil Defence Corps and an authentic 1950’s projector.