Disused military radar site converted into holiday property
A former Royal Air force radar site overlooking the North Sea in North Yorkshire has been turned into a holiday home.
The Old Guard House in Goldsborough, near Whitby, part of the Mulgrave Estate, has been converted into a luxury five-bedroom property.
It can now sleep up to 10 people and has four bathrooms. The property has achieved a 5-Star Gold Visit England Award.
Conversion works took 18 months to complete and were led by interior designer Sibylla Phipps. She said: “We needed to restore the original building to exactly what it would have looked like during the Second World War.
Site had been in a derelict state, after it was badly damaged by a fire
“As a former RAF radar site, it was always a landmark and a point of interest in the area. In 2004 it was badly damaged by a fire and stood as a skeletal wreck until we began work on it last year.
“We haven’t faced many challenges in the building process, mainly due to the brilliant work of our construction company Starline Construction, for whom seemingly no obstacle is insurmountable.
“My only regret is that the underground bunker, in which the control panels of the Guard House were kept, was beyond repair. Having been flooded for many decades it was too dangerous to recover and is now sealed off for safety reasons.
“The architect I worked with, Richard Waller of Peter Rayment Designs, was extremely talented and sensitive to the needs of the project.”
The Old Guard House was originally developed in 1941 as an Army station to detect enemy ships approaching Britain by sea.
In 1942, it was transferred to the control of the RAF, becoming RAF Goldsborough. The site was upgraded in 1951 to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers and was fitted with an underground bunker, in addition to the original Guard House.
