Community’s bid to buy POW camp

Community’s bid to buy POW camp 
 
BBC
16.01.07

A group of villagers in Perthshire has launched an attempt to buy a former World War II camp which once housed notorious Nazi prisoners.

The community in Comrie is putting together a bid to buy the Cultybraggan camp from the Ministry of Defence.

The maximum security facility, which opened in 1939, held up to 4,000 Nazi prisoners during World War II, including SS troops. Its high-profile prisoners included Hitler’s deputy Rudolph Hess, who was held there for one night after he crash landed his plane in Scotland.

‘Major’ site

Cultybraggan was retained as a training camp after the war, but the Ministry of Defence has now decided to sell the site, along with the many Nissen huts which are still standing.

The Comrie Development Trust, which is behind the proposal to buy the 64-acre site, is to hold a public meeting where villagers will have the opportunity to say what they would like to see done with the camp.

The trust is to be given first offer for the purchase after the Scottish Executive accepted the group’s official register of interest.

Trust secretary Alan Caldwell said: “The community wants the opportunity to consider what will happen in Cultybraggan and have their say on the future of a major, major piece of land.”