HIGHLAND castles and Edinburgh townhouses may soon have a new rival for the last word in property chic. Estate agents are hoping to sell cold war nuclear bunkers, complete with their own radiation filters and Geiger counters, to Scotland’s aspiring homeowners.

Seven underground bunkers, built by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the late 1940s as observation posts in the event of a nuclear attack, are being put on the market for up to £5,000 each.

The bunkers, at sites in Arbroath, the Borders, Inverness, Balloch and Wick come with a plot of land of up to a quarter of acre. They are 12ft below ground and some come equipped with bunk beds, table and chairs, air conditioning, and special filters originally designed to prevent harmful radioactive particles entering the bunker.

The shelters, roughly the size of a small caravan, were built on hilltops and command spectacular views across the Scottish countryside.

Interest has been so strong it is thought the bunkers could sell for up to four times the asking price. Last month, a similar building in Louth, near Lincoln, sold for £22,000 and another in the Lake District was snapped up for £15,000.

“I see them being sold to those with an interest in cold war memorabilia,” said Gilmour Strang, from Bidwells, the selling agents. “Generally they were built on hills because they were observation posts and have stunning views. We are aware of a lot of local interest. They are quirky and it’s not every day these types of things are sold. We expect them to sell very quickly.”

There are an estimated 1,600 known bunkers in Britain, including 500 in Scotland, but it is thought there could be many more not yet documented.

Bunkers gained widespread popularity in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s as the fear of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union gripped the West.

Utility companies, railway stations and local authorities constructed bunkers as emergency control centres in the event of a devastating nuclear attack. A number of larger bunkers, known as regional war rooms, were also set up as protection against possible air attacks that were predicted if Britain found itself at war again.

Thirteen such war rooms were constructed in Britain, including in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester and Belfast. Although many have since fallen into disrepair — the MoD closed down about half of its nuclear bunkers in the late 1960s and the remainder were decommissioned in 1991 at the end of the cold war — others are still in use.

A bunker built by Dumfries and Galloway council, for example, was recently used as a control room at the height of the foot and mouth crisis. In Kirknewton, near Edinburgh, a former regional war room was converted into a nightclub in 1994 and others have been transformed into recording studios, mushroom farms and data storage centres. Some are even returned to their original condition by enthusiasts.

The latest bunkers to hit the property market were bought by a telecommunications company in the early 1990s but are being sold because they proved unsuitable as sites for mobile-phone masts. They could also prove a hit with those convinced Armageddon is just around the corner.

“The majority of people in their forties remember how serious the cold war threat was; it was very real,” said Ward Westwater, 34, from Glasgow who owns five nuclear bunkers, including four in Scotland. “These bunkers are relics of the cold war and it’s a chance for people to own a piece of history.

“However, there are also the doom and gloomists who are buying them for their own protection and have stocked them with provisions.”

Nick Catford, a researcher for Subterranea Britannica, a group that is documenting bunkers for historical purposes, added: “Some people simply want to own a piece of cold war history. There may no longer be a nuclear threat but these bunkers can be used for anything.”

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