Craster radar station Chain Home (Low). Two concrete buildings with radar setting on the roof of the largest example. (NU 25465n 20410 and NU 25465 20385). See slide X31. (1)

Radar station converted into a camp for Italian prisoners/co-belligerents in mid-1944. (2)

A series of structural and earthwork remains were briefly identified during survey work October 2009 and January 2010. The World War 2 radar station site includes a series of earthworks which are the remains of the close-quarters defences of the site. (3)

The two principle buildings remain of the radar station. One housed the radar transmitting and receiving equipment, as evidenced by the mountings for the rotating radar dish, whilst the other housed an electrical generator. (4)

The World War II Chain Home Low radar station was surveyed between 2003-2006 by English Heritage. It stands on top of a prominent escarpment known as 'The Heughs' and comprises two concrete buildings, a number of other structres and a series of earthworks. The northernmost building is the TxRx (Transmit/Receive) Block and the southernmost is the Standby Set House; these were recorded in detail. Field survey also identified the remains of other buildings which would have formed part of the complex, such as the bases of Nissen huts that formed accommodation and ablutions blocks. Around the radar station complex, in strategic locations, there were a number of surviving weapons pits.
The radar station was built in late 1941 and continued in operation until July 1944, and was used as a Prisoner of War camp in the latter stages of World War II. (5)

The radar station is recorded as operating in the Coastal Defence (CD), Chain Home Low (CHL) and Chain Home Extra Low (CHEL) schemes of coverage at various stages of World War II. The site was operating by April 1942. The site was designated with the numbers M28 and K28 to reflect these roles. The site was engaged in a CD role only by 31 December 1942. (6)

A Second World War radar station with associated barbed wire obstructions are visible as structures on air photographs, centred at NU 2546 2040. Only two buildings appear to be still extant on the latest 1999 Ordnance Survey vertical photography. (7a)

A Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low station located at Craster (NU 264 203), called site M28. Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low (CD/CHL) radar stations were operated by the British Army to detect shipping and aircraft. CD/CHL sites opened from spring 1941 and comprised a brick or concrete operations block with an aerial gantry mounted on the roof and a separate standby set house for the reserve power. Staff were billeted where possible, but some stations had a small layout of domestic hutting situated within one mile of the site. From 1942 CD/CHL sites were combined with the Royal Air Force's Chain Home Low (CHL) sites to form one system of low-cover radar under the control of the RAF. Selected stations were upgraded with centimetric radars to become the K-series of Chain Home Extra Low (CHEL) stations. This improvement in radar technology meant that fewer stations were needed to give the same coverage and as a result many CHL and CD/CHL stations not upgraded were closed. (7b)

Aerial photography from 1972 shows that two buildings survive at the site at NU 255 204. (7c)

Between 2003 and 2005, English Heritage's Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team carried out an investigation and Level 3 analytical field survey at 1:1 000 scale of a World War II Chain Home Low radar station at Craster, Northumberland. In addition to the analytical field survey, which encompassed the radar station complex, ancillary buildings and surrounding fieldworks, the project also comprised documentary research, rapid architectural investigation of the standing remains and the gathering of oral testimony from local people resident in Craster during World War II. The earthwork survey was carried out using a combination of survey-grade GPS and traditional taped survey techniques. The project at Craster was undertaken at the request of The National Trust, in order to gain an understanding of the nature, survival and extent of military activity here and to inform conservation and management of the site; this followed on from the archaeological investigation of Dunstanburgh Castle, also undertaken by the Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team. A full report, part of the Research Department Report Series, is available from the NMR, reference RDRS 43/2006. (7d)

English Heritage, 'Dunstanburgh Castle', guidebook (7e)