Originally Posted by
ORAC
We used to have RAF Bishops Court until 1989 as part of UKADGE - no problems with the locals until the IRA mortared it. Reportedly it was a mistake and the IRA sent a letter of apology.
Regardless, the decision was made to close at a high level and, during one night, they all climbed into vehicles, locked the doors and drive away.
I was working at RAF Boulmer at the time, the CRC to which CRP Bishops Court reported. They didn’t answer the phone the next day and we couldn’t work out why we couldn’t contact them - we only found out by calling HQ 11 Gp….
So closed the last air defence radar site in Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bishops_Court
p.s. Lousy radar coverage to the west because the Mountains of Mourne were in the way…
They wouldn't have answered the phone anyway from Ops at least because the Station was down for annual maintenance on the morning that the station was declared non operational. It took best part of 5 months to close the place, with a gradual removal of the equipment and drawdown of the multiple sites that made up the station. Everything was ripped out including all of the carpets in the Married Quarters, which resulted in the personnel who stayed there to the end sleeping in sleeping bags on camp beds in the MQ site.