Stonehaven Radio Station (Former), Dunnottar

Single storey, flat-roofed radio station with 2-stage operating room comprising battered polygonal ribbon window in style of airport control tower. Red brick base course. Dry-dash with raised ashlar doorway and concrete cills. Top-opening and fixed timber windows. Concrete roof. W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 10-bay elevation (bays grouped 1-9). Symmetrical bays to right with broad 2-leaf timber door and fanlight at centre, regularly-disposed windows in flanking bays; advanced outer left bay with further door, large cowl air vent and datestone with crown and '1956´ in high relief.

Surrounded by a ring of masts and sited high above the sea close to the ruins of Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven Coastal Radio Station is a rare survivor. The service was operated by Post Office Telephones and subsequently British Telecom. It was associated with Merchant Navies, initially co-ordinating Search and Rescue operations between Coastguard and the RNLI. The first coastal Radio Station in the Stonehaven area was built circa 1910. With commencement of hostilities in WWII, coverage of the North Sea from Cullercoats and Wick was found to be limited. This resulted in the Admiralty building a station, opened in May 1942 and comprising an assortment of small wooden huts. Today´s modern Radio Station built to a plan soon to be repeated at Ilfracombe in Devon, was opened in January 1958 by the Inspector of Wireless Telegraphy. With the discovery of North Sea Oil in the mid 1960s special services were needed for oil companies and support vessels. By 1966 the station operated a 12-channel radiotelex system (shared with Humber) enabling rigs to work direct with company offices. By 1972, half of the station´s 17,000 calls per year were made by exploration platforms. Throughout the 1980s control of services from other stations were transferred to Stonehaven, but technical advances and the introduction of VHF direct calling in 1986 led to the closure of Stonehaven´s distress watch on 31st October, 1987. During the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster the station was heavily involved in handling back-up communications between rescue and support vessels. The introduction of Maritime Satellite systems led to the Coastal Radio Network ceasing operation in 1999. (Historic Scotland)

March 2009: The Mearns Leader reports on the state of disrepair that the station is now in and on efforts by the community group to purchase it and use it for community uses and a museum.

February 2010: Mearns Leader reports the community buy-out of the building was unsuccessful but an application has been submitted to convert the building into offices.

October 2010: External inspection finds the building in fair condition despite having lain empty for some time. Restoration works are about to commence on site. Full planning permission for change of use to business units was granted with conditions May 2010 ref: APP/2009/3225
. .Record set to ALERT for monitoring at this time.

14 August 2013: External inspection finds no works have taken place since the previous site visit and there is evidence vandalism has taken place. Moved to At Risk.