BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland Bunker – Canadian Civil Defence Museum And Archives

Overgrown grass and weeds surrounds the nuclear bunker

BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (AP) — It has no windows — but offers unrestricted views of Armageddon.

Northern Ireland is selling its Cold War-era nuclear bunker, an underground installation with room for 235 beds that sellers imagine could be transformed into a tourist attraction or blast-proof storage facility.

Journalists took a tour Thursday of one of Northern Ireland’s strangest real estate offerings. For 575,000 pounds ($850,000), the successful buyer could acquire a 46,363-square-foot (4,300-square-meter) grass-topped building discretely situated on 3.74 acres (1.51 hectares) of rolling fields northwest of Belfast.

Northern Ireland’s leaders have decided they can survive without the bunker, which was built in the 1980s to protect key government and legal figures from a Russian nuclear strike. The facility includes a conference room and broadcasting suite. Its existence was a state secret until 2007.

The shower in the decontamination room at a nuclear bunker The Police room at a nuclear bunker The male toilets at a nuclear bunker The main power generator needed to sustain human life at a nuclear bunker The main entrance and blast door at the nuclear bunker The main conference room The main conference and control room inside the nuclear bunker The main communication room at a nuclear bunker The ladder leading to the outside world via the decontamination chamber in the nuclear bunker site The entrance to the nuclear bunker that was built by the during the cold war in Ballymena, Northern Ireland The emergency BBC broadcasting studio at a nuclear bunker The electrical control room inside the nuclear bunker The door into the Police and armed services room at a nuclear bunker The decontamination room at a nuclear bunker The communal recreation room at a nuclear bunker Teabags, cups and saucers sit on a kitchen worktop at a nuclear bunker Safety instructions in the event of an electric shock can been seen on the wall of the nuclear bunker Overgrown grass and weeds surrounds the nuclear bunker One of the female dormitory rooms at a nuclear bunker Key switches are seen displayed in the main power control room at a nuclear bunker Interior view of the nuclear bunker he main blast door is shut from the inside at a nuclear bunker Cups and saucers site on a pantry room shelf at a nuclear bunker Cans and packets of food lay on a kitchen worktop at a nuclear bunker An old British Telecom telephone sits on a table inside a nuclear bunker A small cot bed frame sits in one of the living quarters at a nuclear bunker A row of safety helmets can be seen on a rack at a nuclear bunker A radioactive warning sign can be seen on the door to the decontamination room at a nuclear bunker A plaque marking the opening ceremony can be seen at a nuclear bunker A member of the public looks at the nuclear bunker site A man displays a tin of marmalade at a nuclear bunker A gauge in a power generator room can be seen at a nuclear bunker A fire services sign lays on the ground at a nuclear bunker A fake plastic tree sits at the bottom of a stairwell at a nuclear bunker A CCTV camera feeds a live view of the outside world back into a nuclear bunker site 1024x1024 The main entrance and blast door at the nuclear bunker Blast doors that protects the entrance to the nuclear bunker A for sale sign can be seen at a nuclear bunker A crate containing radioactive survey meters is stored inside a nuclear bunker Overgrown grass and weeds surrounds the nuclear bunker