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There are some secrets you want to share particularly as we might be needing them soon, so I was intrigued by the signpost to Scotland’s Secret Bunker.

The bunker, amusingly, is located near St Andrews, the Home of Golf but they’re more interested here in nukes than niblicks.

Scotland’s Secret Underground Nuclear Centre, to give it its Sunday name, wasn’t advertised, naturally, back in the day.

But thankfully with the end of the Cold War (no, really) it is a tourist site.

Down on the farm

The bunker stands a hundred feet down with the entrance hidden in an unsuspecting farmhouse.

RAF Troywood, which was built in 1953, covers 24,000sqft of Command Centre.

It incorporates the radar technology of that era, dormitory, plotting room and mess.

The visitor attraction is open from February 1 to November 30.

It’s £13.95 for adults, £9.95 for children and £12.95 for concessions with a 2.2 family rate coming in at £37.95.

The bunker was primed for 50 years before it was put in mothballs but has thankfully been spruced up for our amusement.

Czech out the Bunker

Going underground gives a perspective into another world and you don’t have to be a military historian to enjoy it.

Of course, it stands to reason that while we were hunkering down in preparation for them attacking us.

The Warsaw Pact were doing the same over on their side.

Which I saw first hand in Prague in Czechia. On my Prague Communism Tour.

Where I was taken behind the thickest steel door imaginable on the side of a mound.

And taken down into the bowels of the Earth to see how the Czechs prepared to hide away from our bombs.

Needless to say the food was tinned meat an the likes although the Czechs would have stocked up on Urquell Pilsner.

They probably underestimated too how many loos they would have needed for full-blooded Pragueites.

Hitler’s hideaway

Check out (sorry) too nuclear bunkers from Arizona to Asia for similar experiences.

While to experience what life must have been like in the most famous bunker of all head for Berlin.

Alas Hitler’s Reichstag in the German capital is no longer there but they have recreated it for you here… it’s the next best thing.

And, of course, we’ll be there just as soon as we can.

For now though we’re looking into Scotland’s Secret Bunker… just in case we need it soon.

Happy St Andrew’s Day.

From Banff to Barbados, Turriff to Tenerife, Lewis to Limassol, Sauchie to Sochi, Keith to Kiev and Thurso to Thessaloniki.

You get the picture – it’s not just Scotland, we all celebrate Andy as our patron saint.

So let’s pick the bones out of the apostle and his links to these countries.

Scots Sandy

St Andrews, Scotland: We’re here at the Home of Golf and the third oldest university in the UK,

The story goes that St Regulus (me neither) brought Andrew’s kneecap, arm, three fingers and a tooth here.

And King Oengus built a holy settlement on this collection.

You’ll want to stay at the Old Course Hotel and look out at where the legendary stickmen took the plaudits.

Fly the Canary flag

A St Andrew’s Day flag lurking In Tenerife

St Andrew, Tenerife: I’m not going to spoonfeed you here though as to how St Andrew came to be associated with the Canaries island of Tenerife.

Only to say that Scotland and Tenerife where I visited with CanariaWays share the same white cross on blue background.

San Cristobal de La Laguna is more Havana (it models itself on this World Heritage site) than Hamilton.

But you will find the iconic flag flying here.

Windies’ Andy

And my old half-Scottish pal Jevan is here

Barbados: The island call Little England has an area called Scotland.

Three hundred and sixty five days of sun, a bit like the Scotland in Europe!

Barbados is split into regions named after saints…

The one where the Rooneys, Simon Cowell, Cliff Richsrd, and, er me, like is the Platinum Coast in Saint James obviously.

All Greek to Andy

Greece and Cyprus: The old white beardie man (and there’s nothing wrong with that) is literally an icon in Greek parts.

You know those wooden framed pictures the Greeks love.

St Andrew is said to have been crucified in Patras.

It is Greece’s third biggest city, the regional capital of Western Greece in the northern Peloponnese.

And the Greek Orthodox basilica is the holy site for Andreans as we’ll call followers of Andrew.

And they’ll think nothing of the 215km trip from Athens.

Eastern Andy

Russia and Ukraine: Our adventurous Andy loved to travel. Much like us.

And our Galilea trawler got himself up to the Black Sea and beyond.

We hope too that he was more than just a fisher of men.

Now should you get on the right side of Vladimir Putin in Russia you’ll get the tap on the shoulder.

And the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called.

It is the highest order in the Russian Federation.

Get it wrong and you’ll get something slipped in your tea and sent on a plane out of the country.

One man’s assassination is another’s martyrdom!

HAPPY ST ANDREW’S DAY

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Scotland’s Secret Bunker