Strange Events in Scotland - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

Main menu

Strange Events in Scotland

To recuperate from my double hernia operation, my glandular fever, and my cancelled wedding, I was granted 14 days sick leave and I decided to get away from it all - to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. (This is a selection of some of the very remote locations I visited in 1977 with a very cheap camera - click on an image to pop up a larger version with a caption.)

One morning the cleaning lady came unexpectedly into my room in the Lochmaddy Hotel, on the island of North Uist, before breakfast and caught me sitting on the bed, fully clothed fortunately, with headphones on and spouting Russian into a hand microphone connected to equipment in my half open attaché case. The equipment was actually nothing more suspicious than a portable tape cassette recorder and my Linguaphone Course tapes. I had decided that I would try and catch up on the many Russian lessons I'd missed in recent weeks. The maid looked both flustered and suspicious - as probably did I. She said she'd knocked twice before entering and then muttered that she would return later, and left. I heard nothing more about that incident but as it happens I'd already decided to move on that day to South Uist.

On my way south from Lochmaddy I had to cross the island of Benbecula. I knew that there was an important RAF air defence radar station on the island but I had no wish to meet the RAF while I was on leave so I bypassed the station and continued my drive south on empty roads.

It was a beautiful summer day and I was at peace with the world.

At about midday I came across a remote loch near Peter’s Port in the extreme south-eastern corner of Benbecula (see image right, second from bottom). I took a few photographs of the fantastic scenery and then lay down on a grassy bank by the edge of the loch near a small disused pier and out of sight of the road I'd just driven along. I put my headphones on, started one of the Linguaphone tapes playing, closed my eyes and promptly dozed off. I woke up some time later when the tape stopped. I could then hear voices close by behind a rocky outcrop.

Not wanting to spoil my idyllic day by meeting anyone, I remained still and closed my eyes again. I listened intently but I could not make out what was being said. A few minutes later I heard a vehicle start up noisily and move away. I waited a few seconds then removed the headphones, got up and peered carefully over the edge of the rocky outcrop. I saw an RAF Land Rover driving down the road I'd come up about an hour earlier. It was going fast and leaving a great cloud of dust. The occupants were clearly in a hurry. I wondered whether they had seen me with headphones on, occasionally spouting Russian, and perhaps that had precipitated their rapid departure - or perhaps the Lochmaddy Hotel cleaning lady had reported what must have appeared to her to be one of the residents acting very suspiciously. As the RAF vehicle finally disappeared around a distant bend I noticed something I'd not seen earlier. There was a small enclosure surrounded by high barbed wire and set well back from the road. There was a metal gate secured by a heavy chain and lock on one side of the enclosure protecting a metal cupboard-like construction about a metre high with a VHF radio antenna mounted on the top. On the gate a small notice stated something like 'RAF Property. Sensitive radio equipment critical to flight safety. Keep Out.'

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West was still very much in evidence. In all the circumstances of that strange day, I thought it better not to take any photographs of military installations, however innocent looking they might be. Had the cleaning lady in the Lochmaddy Hotel reported her encounter with me to her manager or the police? Had the RAF sent out someone from Benbecula to follow me and see what I was up to? Did someone think I was a spy, or was it merely another coincidence?

Had I actually been a spy, I would probably have arranged my belongings in my next hotel that evening in such a way that I could have detected whether or not they had been examined. But I wasn't and I didn't, so I don't know whether they were!