A lost piece of military history was unearthed during work to install one of Scottish Water’s largest solar panel projects to date.
During the work at a waste water treatment plant in Montrose, the company’s installation contractors Absolute Solar and Wind were cutting back shrubbery when they discovered a preserved air raid shelter form World War 2.
Scottish Water Horizons project manager Mari Davies said: “Having liaised with the local council, we knew that in the past the area could have been home to munitions and radioactive material, all remnants of the Second World War.
“Once we’d cleared the land, we made the unexpected discovery of a WW2 air raid shelter. Although an interesting find, it did mean we have to alter our plans slightly to fit round it.”
“The treatment works also sits on part of what was RAF Montrose which is said to be haunted by the ghost of Lieutenant Desmond Arthur, a pilot who crashed there in 1913. There have been many sightings of him over the years, but luckily none of our contractors had any paranormal experiences.”
The solar project, which will offset a fifth of the water work’s energy consumption, will generate about 240,000kWh a year – enough to boil a kettle 1.5 million times.
The team are currently looking for other Scottish Water sites which could benefit from similar schemes.