Thanks to The Historian, Engineer and others for their help with this.
Sumburgh Airfield was established in 1933 and taken over by the RAF in 1939. It continued to serve Shetland after the war and was modernised to cater for the North Sea oil boom.
The fuel depot is to the south of the airfield and appears to be perilously close to the end of the runway- though it wouldn't have been so close in wartime, the runway has been extended. It consists of three underground tanks, a small "walk-through" shelter, a central "hub" building and a small kiosk-like building.
This was my favourite kind of explore- spot something interesting, park and go for a look. I rushed it a bit because I had a ferry to catch and I thought my missing toolbox might have been at Sullom Mine, at the other end of Shetland.
External view
The entrance to one of the tank. All three doors were present, though none attached. Through the door there were stairs leading to...
At the bottom of the stairs.
I'd left my torch in the van and was using my camera's focus-assist to see. it wasn't until the last one that I decided to stick my head through the porthole. Then I went back to the van for my torch.
All internal pictures are of the same tank. I considered doing the others but they looked the same and the floor was a bit crunchy. I don't know what is under the tanks but I do know that finding out would hurt.
Standing on top of a tank.
The "hub", for want of a better word. Very overexposed in an attempt to make the inside visible- the sun was pretty strong.
A few more on Flickr
Sumburgh Airfield was established in 1933 and taken over by the RAF in 1939. It continued to serve Shetland after the war and was modernised to cater for the North Sea oil boom.
The fuel depot is to the south of the airfield and appears to be perilously close to the end of the runway- though it wouldn't have been so close in wartime, the runway has been extended. It consists of three underground tanks, a small "walk-through" shelter, a central "hub" building and a small kiosk-like building.
This was my favourite kind of explore- spot something interesting, park and go for a look. I rushed it a bit because I had a ferry to catch and I thought my missing toolbox might have been at Sullom Mine, at the other end of Shetland.
External view
The entrance to one of the tank. All three doors were present, though none attached. Through the door there were stairs leading to...
At the bottom of the stairs.
I'd left my torch in the van and was using my camera's focus-assist to see. it wasn't until the last one that I decided to stick my head through the porthole. Then I went back to the van for my torch.
All internal pictures are of the same tank. I considered doing the others but they looked the same and the floor was a bit crunchy. I don't know what is under the tanks but I do know that finding out would hurt.
Standing on top of a tank.
The "hub", for want of a better word. Very overexposed in an attempt to make the inside visible- the sun was pretty strong.
A few more on Flickr