Is The Isle of Skye (UK) Being Used As A Testing Ground For A SHTF Senario ?

The Isle of Skye is one of the larger Hebridean Islands off the west coast of Scotland (UK) and there has been several interesting incidents that I'd like to tell you about and ask for your opinions ... please bear with me and be patient as this is not my usual domain and there is a good chance I will make some clumbsy mistakes but I feel very strongly that this latest high strangeness is worth an ATS mention

All of my information comes firsthand from my friends of 20+yrs who live in Edinbane on the island ... their local newspaper ... and some brief internet searches. The thread consists of 3 parts/events culminating in the most recent that occured this last week and is the event that has prompted this thread ... all have military / ministry of defence links ... and just to whet your appetite it involves the Top Secret SAS base on the nearby Isle of Rona (see the map) ... Top Secret Base disguised as a 'defence contractor's site' at the Kyle of Lochalsh on Skye ... and a connection with a former director of the CIA


The Isle of Skye & Isle of Rona




First Event
Back in April of this year the military held some massive war games on Skye and part of the Scottish Highlands. Between the royal airforce / royal navy / and British Army (inc the SAS) there was something in the region of 8,000 participants ... the war games lasted 2weeks and were code-named Joint Warrior. The people of Skye were informed that during the war games they would experience loss of phone / internet access for up to a couple of hours a day at staggered times. To live the island life you have to be adaptable so the people of Skye may have been a little disgruntled but they accepted that it was going to happen whatever they said so they just got on with it.

BBC News - Highlands & Islands (Operation 'Joint Warrior') - 21st April 2012

www.bbc.co.uk...


Now, war games happen (love them or hate them) the military have to polish and hone their skills (fact) during the time the war games were taking place the navy and airforce were very visible ... but there was no visible sign of army activity ... even though they knew they were there.

How could so many soldiers remain undetected in such a small place ?

One answer could be something my friend and I have theorized before and that is that there is an underground facility beneath Skye ... it's the only logical explanation ... because whilst the soldiers themselves could easily have hidden themselves in the mountains and numerous caves around the island they could not have hidden all their equipment and vehicles in the same manner ... and other than the ferry from Malaig and the road bridge to the Kyle of Lochalsh there is no other way onto the island so army vehicles would have been seen coming over from the mainland ... they were not !

Before ending this first event information there was one other thing that happened ... unfortunately I have no way of proving it ... but it was related to my friend by the islands farrier who had actually been at the old crofters cottage when he received the letter ...

A few days after the war games finished and normality returned to the island one of the old crofters received a letter from the MOD the envelope also contained a cheque and the letter explained that it was to reimburse him for the food eaten and inconvinience that may have been caused by the SAS soldier that had been living in his roof during the war games ... the old crofter hadn't known a thing. Comforting to know they are so good at what they do ... but also scary that they are so good at what they do.



Second Event
This event was unusual in it's own right but the things I discovered during my search for confirmation and extra information were quite shocking and certainly add weight to the speculation that a secret base exists and there is much going on that is not admitted to.

The article I am about to quote is from the same source

BBC News - Highlands & Islands on the 25 / 5 / 2012

but I don't have a direct link for it as it was sent to me as a copy in an email from my friend.

"A dummy torpedo used for training submarine crews sparked an emergency in a Highland village it emerged.

Guards at a defence contractor's site at the Kyle of Lochalsh raised the alarm after smoke was seen rising from the drone target on Tuesday (24th April 2012).

Highlands and Islands Fire Service said the incident was dealt with professionally by localretained crew and the contractors staff.

Defence firm QinetiQ said a fault had with the devises battery was to blame.

A spokesman said the incident was dealt with within 30mins.

QinetiQ has launched an investigationinto the incident.

The MoD initially denied it and it only came to light because a local went to the papers.

The defence contractor's site where this took place is run by BUTEC and QinetiQ so I thought I'd see if there was anything of interest to find out about them ... and I have to say I was amazed by what I discovered.


Ariel View Of The BUTEC / QinetiQ Facility

BUTEC - British Underwater Test & Evaluation Centre

BUTEC are used to evaluate the sensors and aural emissions of British submarines ... operated on behalf of the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence by QinetiQ ... must read - click on the link;

en.wikipedia.org...


Defence Contractor's Site At The Kyle of Lochalsh

QinetiQ

QinetiQ carry-out acoustic testing (aviation) amongst other things (but the real kicker comes from the following snippet of information) ... between Oct 2006 - Jan 2008 one of the independent non-executive directors of QinetiQ's board was George Tenet (former Central Intelligence Agency Director)

en.wikipedia.org...


BUTEC / QinetiQ Facility



Interestingly BUTEC / QinetiQ have a facility on the Isle of Rona ... which just happens to be where the SAS base is.


Isle of Rona



I'm running out of characters so I'll post this as it stands and add the Third Event as a separate post.

Woody

i live in the highlands near inverness .when i was younger i worked in one in inverness it was huge . i know of one near dingwall in the hills you see chinooks quite often .ive been to skye many times & if you fart at one side of the island everybody knows quickly .theres a lot hidden underground up here

Originally posted by geobro
i live in the highlands near inverness .when i was younger i worked in one in inverness it was huge . i know of one near dingwall in the hills you see chinooks quite often .ive been to skye many times & if you fart at one side of the island everybody knows quickly .theres a lot hidden underground up here

Hey there geobro thanks for that feedback ... the title of the thread is better explained by the third event which I will be adding tomorrow ... just coming up to midnight now and I'm absolutely knackered for some reason.

Do you know anything about this facility at the Kyle of Lochalsh ?

The torpedo incident is just plain weird ... do dummies have the ability to smoke ... and would a group of part-time firemen be called on to take care of it when surely the facility would be in-house equiped for such emergencies ?

The fact that the MoD denied there was a problem and it only came out after a local went to the paper makes it look suspicious. As you'll know the Kyle of Lochalsh is one of the more populated areas of the island so it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in their safety regimes if they deny there is a problem concerning (albeit) a dummy torpedo.

Woody

A dummy torpedo would still need power. The battery's used today are a little dangerous sometimes, thats why we heard all the stories about laptops etc catching fire.

Great post by the way, waiting for part two

reply to post by woodwytch


Very interesting thread, I do have some issues with it but on the whole very interesting.

I don’t know if I am pre-empting your third event, but there was also the HMS Astute running aground nearby.

Just to be clear, there is no 22SAS base on the Isle of sky or rona but the story about the crofter does not surprise me. The war games take place often, I have seen them myself of the cost of the Mull of Kintyre nearby on the mainland and they are not isolated to the isle of Skye.

If you are interested RAF Machrininish is actually nearby and usually referred to as the Area 51 of the UK and there are a more than a few interesting stories around that old base. These include Aurora flights, a unusually long runway, during the cold war the American’s operated out of the base and had a Seal Team based their they invested millions apparently in bunkers. Then there was also the famous Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash which killed many high level intelligence officials.

Hope you post the third event soon, S&F

Originally posted by OtherSideOfTheCoin
reply to post by woodwytch

 

RAF Machrininish

edit on 9-6-2012 by OtherSideOfTheCoin because: (no reason given)

RAF Machrininish?

That reminds me of the famous Mitch Hedberg joke...

You know that word “lull”?
That’s four letters, three of them are L’s, f*ck! That’s too many L’s in one word!
The word lull is just one letter away from FOUR F*CKING L's

GOOGLE SEARCH

Showing results for RAF Machrihanish

Search instead for RAF Machrininish

You know that word “Machrininish”?
That’s twelve letters, and TWO of them are IN’s, f*ck!
That’s too many IN’s in one word!
The word is just one letter away from THREE F*CKING IN's

An answer to the House of Commons in 2004 reveals that the base was handed over by the United States Navy back to Ministry of Defence control on June 30, 1995.

At 3,049 m (10,003 ft), the original runway 11/29 at Campbeltown Airport is the longest of any public airport in Scotland. The base is now on what is termed "care and maintenance" — this allows the airfield to be used by civilian airlines, which may conduct scheduled and charter flights from the aerodrome.

The MoD are responsible for the upkeep of the aerodrome, which may sometimes be used by military detachments whilst on exercise. During times of conflict or national emergency, the aerodrome could revert to its intended military use.

In 2005 the MoD was still reported to be considering reactivating the base.

On 14 May 2009, it was announced that the base would be made available for sale, and in 2012 was sold for £1 to a local consortium who hope to develop the site for the benefit of the local community.

I wish I'd have known they were selling it at the time?
I would have given them £1.50p for it or even £2 at a push!
I've always wanted to own my own airbase! LOL!

reply to post by woodwytch

A few days after the war games finished and normality returned to the island one of the old crofters received a letter from the MOD the envelope also contained a cheque and the letter explained that it was to reimburse him for the food eaten and inconvinience that may have been caused by the SAS soldier that had been living in his roof during the war games ... the old crofter hadn't known a thing. Comforting to know they are so good at what they do ... but also scary that they are so good at what they do.

NOTE TO SELF. SEND VIRTUAL CHEQUE TO ATS. FOR MY RESIDING IN THE ATTIC OF THEIR WEBSITE AND ALL OF THE FOOD ADS I'VE LOOKED AT! LOL!

Originally posted by VoidHawk
A dummy torpedo would still need power. The battery's used today are a little dangerous sometimes, thats why we heard all the stories about laptops etc catching fire.

Great post by the way, waiting for part two

I am not sure about these torpedoes in this case, but the US torpedoes use a small combustion engine, the fuel they use is called Otto fuel II. Since Otto fuel provides its own O2 it is also difficult to extinguish, also one of the byproducts of combustion is hydrogen cyanide gas which is extreemly toxic. The combination of those two facts would explain why a special team was required to extinguish the burning/smoking torpedeo.

Edit: after closer reading, I under stand it was the drone TARGET that was smoking not the torpedeo it's self, so my above explanation is ilrelivent to the situation.

reply to post by mileysubet


I just assumed it would be batteries because the infernal combustion engine is so noisy and I wrongly assumed it would need o2.

Thanks for the info.

First Event Back in April of this year the military held some massive war games on Skye and part of the Scottish Highlands. Between the royal airforce / royal navy / and British Army (inc the SAS) there was something in the region of 8,000 participants ... How could so many soldiers remain undetected in such a small place ? One answer could be something my friend and I have theorized before and that is that there is an underground facility beneath Skye ... it's the only logical explanation ...

Firstly, we need to know exactly how you reached the figure of 8000 participants, because if you can't say with some degree of informed accuracy there were "in the region of 8000 participants", an underground base is NOT not the only logical explanation. In fact, it's probably one of the least logical.

Where did you get the number of 8000 from? Have you seen official records? Did you count the troops as they arrived? Because if not, you don't know how many were there. And if you don't know how many were there, you can't make assumptions about what's most logical when it comes to their dispersal, can you?

Operation Joint Warrior takes place every year - many of the 8,000 partcipiants are Navy or Airforce. This year, it would appear that around 1,600 troops were involved, mostly in Galloway.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk...

To the best of my knowledge, Skye is not used for such land exercises. In the past, they have been known to 'attack and defend' bothies in Galloway! Quite fun if you're staying in one at the time ....

The submarine testing site has been there for decades. As has the drone and missile testing site in Benbecula.

I really fail to see that anything unusual has happened?


Edit: oh,and by the way, the OP's picture of the BUTEC/QinetiQ facility is actually an ariel view of the popular tourist village of Kyle

reply to post by woodwytch


Good morning and thank-you to everyone who has contributed ... I really appreciate it because I was a little aprehensive to post any of this as this forum is completely alien territory for me on ATS and I half expected to get shot out of the water (pun not intended). I will make individual replies to the necessary posts but for now I'd like to continue with the Third Event as this is the most recent and also explains the reason for my title question;

Is The Isle of Skye (UK) Being Used As A Testing Ground For A SHTF Senario ?

Third Event
On the 7th June 2012 (last Thursday) I received a call from my friend on Skye telling me that she'd needed to drive several miles to get a mobile reception in order to tell me the following information.

The entire island was effected by lost phone connection (including most mobile networks) ... internet access ... ATM machines ... she discovered this after calling at the garage for fuel and not being able to use her card ... she was told that it was cash only as the ATM's were down ... thinking it was an isolated incident effecting only the garage she went into Portree (the biggest town on the island where the bank and supermarket are) only to discover that the ATM was down there too.


Portree - Isle of Skye


She went to the supermarket to get cashback and yes you guessed it their machines were down too and they were only letting people in if they could prove they had cash on them to buy the items they wanted ... the bank and most of the shops were closed ... the shops that stayed open insisted on seeing cash before you were allowed in to buy, just like the supermarket. Finally my friend had to travel further down the island to the Kyle of Lochalsh where her daughter lives in order to borrow some cash to pay for her fuel on the way home and call in the supermarket to get the goods she needed.


Kyle of Lochalsh - Isle of Skye



Now you have to bear in mind that this effected the entire island and so included things like hotel / B&B's because people couldn't pay their bill with a credit card and were very unlikely to have had the cash on them to cover the cost ... restaurants had to close ... my friend and her husband own the islands furniture store and also had to close because the atm ... phone and internet were down and it was Saturday (yesterday) before everything was back up and running ... so as you can imagine many people and small businesses have lost money in a time such an event can barely be tolorated because of the national financial climate.

We also have to wonder how people would have or did deal with any emergancy situations if they had no phone access to call the emergany services ... in short the shut down of these services (phone / internet / atm's) caused many ripples in the pond (beyond the obvious) during the couple of days they were down ... however as I have stated the entire island was left without these services that are even more important on an island than the mainland ... except it would seem the government run school who's computers were working fine ... and the hospital (how 'lucky' is that ... what are the odds)

As you can imagine people were expecting an announcement to tell them what the he!! was going on and the MoD were pretty quick to respond ... apparently the loss of these services was caused by a submarine in The Minch cutting through a cable ... people were justifiably pi$$ed but as mentioned in the OP to live the island life you have to be flexible and adaptable so they cussed and moaned a bit then prepared to get on with it ... but before they had time to absorb the explanation it was retracted by the MoD and the new explanation for sending the island back into the dark-ages was 'attempted cable theft'.

Yes apparently two less than bright local lads had decided to steel the BT cable that apparently runs beneath the the sea-loch (lake) ... at low tide. Allegedly the attempted theft was of a length of fibre optic subsea cable that BT (British Telecom) said " the thieves had mistakenly thought the cable contained copper,

Click the link below to read the full article ...

www.bbc.co.uk...

BBC News - Highlands & Islands (attempted cable theft) 7th June 2012

Bit of a flimsy cover story in it's own right but what makes it even less believable is the fact that my friend was speaking to a lady who lives on the edge of the loch where this cable was allegedly cut / damaged and there is not a single BT van engineer to be seen !

reply to post by woodwytch


Dude, Joint Warrior was primarily a naval/airforce exercise. The only troops involved were aboard HMS Illustrious and their part was focussed around the use of helo's from the carrier. Hence why you (or your contacts) didn't see swarms of them everywhere, because there weren't any. Most of the 8,000 involved were naval personnel.

As for the other two parts, I am not sure what you're alluding to. There is a strategic reason why the subs are based in the West of Scotland and it stands to reason that facilities used to develop submarine equipment and skills are based in the same area.

Originally posted by woodwytch
Yes apparently two less than bright local lads had decided to steel the BT cable that apparently runs beneath the the sea-loch (lake) ... at low tide. Allegedly the attempted theft was of a length of fibre optic subsea cable that BT (British Telecom) said " the thieves had mistakenly thought the cable contained copper,

Click the link below to read the full article ...

www.bbc.co.uk...

BBC News - Highlands & Islands (attempted cable theft) 7th June 2012

Bit of a flimsy cover story in it's own right but what makes it even less believable is the fact that my friend was speaking to a lady who lives on the edge of the loch where this cable was allegedly cut / damaged and there is not a single BT van engineer to be seen !

edit on 10-6-2012 by woodwytch because: (no reason given)

It's not flimsy at all. I work for the 2nd largest Telco in the UK and cable theft is a MAJOR problem. It isn't too far fetched the same applies here...

In fact, I can probably dig up some info on that as we would have probably been affected.

EDIT: Also, BT won't necessarily be the ones performing the fix either, so it shouldn't be taken that a lack of BT vans means it is bogus.

reply to post by woodwytch


I must say as much as I am enjoying reading your thread I totally disagree with your assertion that the isle of sky is being used as some kind of testing ground and the events you are talking about are not really of any real significance nor do they point to it being used as a testing ground.

The first event happens every year, the second event is not really all that suspicious when you consider that they are testing torpedo’s in that area and the third event is just something that happens. I

What you have posted is interesting; however there are some slight inaccuracies but none of it points to the isle being used as a testing ground.

reply to post by woodwytch


Ok ... judging by the main consensus it seems there is nothing untowards going on and all is as it should be ... as I said in the OP I was unsure whether to post or not as I certainly do not know enough about the military / MoD to make any solid claims ... I simply wanted to get some feedback from people who probably know more about such things than I ever will.

The reason I used the words 'high strangeness' was because my friend has lived on the island for almost a decade and has indeed witnessed the war-games in the past but this time was 'different' she said ... they have never been made aware of any problems at the defence site before and let us not forget that it was denied that there was a problem until someone went to the paper with the story and only then did they admit it ... and never in all the time she has lived there have they had anything remotely like the problems they had last week. I would also like to hear from anyone that can confirm that damage to a BT fibre optic subsea cable could shutdown ATM's as well as phones and internet and most mobile networks ?

I still can't understand why the MoD would claim responsibility for the damage initially only to retract that statement and say it is cable theft ... also it isn't just the absence of BT engineers at the claimed location ... it is the absence of any engineers / technicians of any description ... and how could the school / hospital computers still be operational when everything else was dead.

I appreciate the feedback ... helpful information and constructve criticism most of you have offered (learning all the time) and it's a shame that a couple of posters felt the need to be 'snotty' in their replies but hey ho this is ATS and we do have our fair share of people who like to display a superior attitude instead of helping people to understand a situation / problem like civilized human-beings

I will pass a link to this thread on to my friend so that she can see the suggestions that have been made.

Woody

Originally posted by Motorhead
First Event Back in April of this year the military held some massive war games on Skye and part of the Scottish Highlands. Between the royal airforce / royal navy / and British Army (inc the SAS) there was something in the region of 8,000 participants ... How could so many soldiers remain undetected in such a small place ? One answer could be something my friend and I have theorized before and that is that there is an underground facility beneath Skye ... it's the only logical explanation ...

Firstly, we need to know exactly how you reached the figure of 8000 participants, because if you can't say with some degree of informed accuracy there were "in the region of 8000 participants", an underground base is NOT not the only logical explanation. In fact, it's probably one of the least logical.

Where did you get the number of 8000 from? Have you seen official records? Did you count the troops as they arrived? Because if not, you don't know how many were there. And if you don't know how many were there, you can't make assumptions about what's most logical when it comes to their dispersal, can you?

edit on 10-6-2012 by Motorhead because: (no reason given)

edit on 10-6-2012 by Motorhead because: (no reason given)

The official figure of 8,000 was reported in the news article I provided a link for ... try reading the infomation provided before leaping at the opportunity to attempt to belittle me with you pseudo-authoritive writiting tone ... you ended up making yourself look a little silly but hopefully it's a lesson you'll learn for your future contributions to ATS.

Woody

Originally posted by woodwytch
Ok ... judging by the main consensus it seems there is nothing untowards going on and all is as it should be ... as I said in the OP I was unsure whether to post or not as I certainly do not know enough about the military / MoD to make any solid claims ... I simply wanted to get some feedback from people who probably know more about such things than I ever will.

That's cool, asking questions is good and, even better, you seem to accept the explanations, unlike many round these parts

Originally posted by woodwytch
I would also like to hear from anyone that can confirm that damage to a BT fibre optic subsea cable could shutdown ATM's as well as phones and internet and most mobile networks ?

I still can't understand why the MoD would claim responsibility for the damage initially only to retract that statement and say it is cable theft ... also it isn't just the absence of BT engineers at the claimed location ... it is the absence of any engineers / technicians of any description ... and how could the school / hospital computers still be operational when everything else was dead.

>puts hand up< me me me!

Ok, to answer your first point, "how damage to a BT fibre optic subsea cable could shutdown ATM's as well as phones and internet and most mobile networks ?"

Well, ATM's need links bank to the banks, same with the mobile base stations and the phones, they are connected into core networks, hence why a break on the subsea cable could shut them off, as they cannot communicate. Mobile stations don't broadcast calls between themselves, but are connected via backbone fibre networks.

As for "and how could the school / hospital computers still be operational when everything else was dead.". Maybe they used a different supplier? Like my company? We didn't suffer a cable break that day and we do supply comms to such places like Hospitals, schools and business, so maybe they used us? Also, such places, especially Hospitals, have protected services so a break won't necessarily bring them down. Normal peeps don't have protection.

I can go into lot's of detail, but it would just be fluff. The jist of it is there. Maybe the MoD thought their sub had snared a cable, but actually found it wasn't them? The MoD is usually quite good at owning up when a sub has done something, especially since the furore after one sank a trawler years back.

Originally posted by AndyMayhew
Operation Joint Warrior takes place every year - many of the 8,000 partcipiants are Navy or Airforce. This year, it would appear that around 1,600 troops were involved, mostly in Galloway.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk...

To the best of my knowledge, Skye is not used for such land exercises. In the past, they have been known to 'attack and defend' bothies in Galloway! Quite fun if you're staying in one at the time ....

The submarine testing site has been there for decades. As has the drone and missile testing site in Benbecula.

I really fail to see that anything unusual has happened?


Edit: oh,and by the way, the OP's picture of the BUTEC/QinetiQ facility is actually an ariel view of the popular tourist village of Kyle

edit on 10-6-2012 by AndyMayhew because: (no reason given)

It's an ariel view of the Kyle of Lochalsh that included the BUTEC / QinetiQ facility ... as I stated in the post ... not quite sure of the point your trying to make here

Woody

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by woodwytch

 

Dude, Joint Warrior was primarily a naval/airforce exercise. The only troops involved were aboard HMS Illustrious and their part was focussed around the use of helo's from the carrier. Hence why you (or your contacts) didn't see swarms of them everywhere, because there weren't any. Most of the 8,000 involved were naval personnel.

As for the other two parts, I am not sure what you're alluding to. There is a strategic reason why the subs are based in the West of Scotland and it stands to reason that facilities used to develop submarine equipment and skills are based in the same area.

Thank goodness an intelligent and helpful reply directed at my OP ... thank-you that would certainly explain the absence of troops on the ground.

As for the other two events I wasn't suggesting that all three are directly linked ... just that according to my friend who has lived there for some years has noticed a difference this particular time around with the Joint Warrior operation ... is concerned by the denial of a problem with the dummy torpedo because her daughter lives about a mile from the facility at Kyle of Lochalsh ... and the claim and retraction of the cable story along with other details mentioned in the post just don't add up.

On the day of the cable incident there was also a lot more than average aircraft activity with numerous Typhoons and very low flying tornadoes ... probably unrelated but again very unusual activity noticed by people who live there year round and get to know and recognize the usual military activity that takes place on and around the island.

Woody

Originally posted by OtherSideOfTheCoin
reply to post by woodwytch

 

I must say as much as I am enjoying reading your thread I totally disagree with your assertion that the isle of sky is being used as some kind of testing ground and the events you are talking about are not really of any real significance nor do they point to it being used as a testing ground.

The first event happens every year, the second event is not really all that suspicious when you consider that they are testing torpedo’s in that area and the third event is just something that happens. I

What you have posted is interesting; however there are some slight inaccuracies but none of it points to the isle being used as a testing ground.

I respect your opinion and feedback and as I've previously mentioned (see my last post) it is the people (not just my friend) who live on the island that are noticing changes in the military activity that regularly occurs on and around the island and are feeling concerned about the recent dishonesty / denial of the MoD in the case of the dummy torpedo and the 'cable theft' ... it is making them very nervous and very suspicious.

And the recent events would certainly have made a good case study for TPTB in a contained area (an island) ... to see just how people would react in a situation where vital technology and communications go down leaving people unable to access emergancy services or even buy provisions if they did not have cash.

Can you imagine if such an experiment were to be played out in a major city ... my guess is it would have resulted in looting again.

Woody