Gin Head WWII site set to become £3.5m home

A FORMER radar station on the shores of the Forth is set to be transformed into a fortress-style luxury home after it was put on the market for £3.5 million.

The former radar station has been put on the market for £3.5m. Picture: HEMEDIA

Gin Head, east of North Berwick, is being described by estate agents as “one of the most extraordinary natural sites in Britain”.

It overlooks The Bass Rock, home to the largest island gannet colony on the planet, and the picturesque ruins of Tantallon Castle.

The existing building is where scientists, in 1943, forensically examined captured German radar equipment and helped influence the outcome of World War Two.

During the war, the UK armed forces managed to convince the German High Command that British naval and airborne forces would arrive in France via the Pas De Calais, rather than in Normandy.

Much of that work was said to have been done at Gin Head, but despite its fascinating history, the buildings are now derelict and the site is waiting for a new lease of life.

Planning permission has been approved to build a “contemporary fortress” on the five acre site.

It has been put on the market with Goldsmith and Co at a guide price of £3.5m.

This makes it one of the most expensive sites for sale in Scotland – and whoever buys it will still have to redevelop the site into a family home.

The proposed house will be a staggering 26,164 square feet in total – making it almost 30 times the size of the average home.

It will have 13-bedrooms, four living rooms and three dining rooms.

There will also be a spa and swimming pool complex.

If the buyer opts against building their own private home, there is also permission to build seven separate residential properties.

Goldsmith and Co says Gin Head offers “an outstanding opportunity to own a unique piece of real estate, with its superb location, fascinating history and awe-inspiring landscape of breathtaking natural forces”.

Richard Seaman, director of Goldsmith and Co, said: “With the historic and dramatic backdrop of Tantallon Castle the property is without doubt one of the most accessible and desirable coastal development opportunities in the whole of the UK.”

Dunbar-based Dunglass Ltd gained planning permission for seven houses and garages on the site in October 2011 and two years later received the green light for the single luxury house. The planning permission was then 
renewed.

MoD work is said to have continued on the site after the Second World War before it was sold to Ferranti in 1984.

The facilities continued to be used until closing 20 years ago.

newsen@edinburghnewscom