James V of Scotland came to Cultybraggan in September 1532 to hunt deer. Records survive of the
food he consumed including bread, ale, and fish sent from Stirling. The land for Cultybraggan Camp was owned by Cultybraggan Farm prior to its acquisition by the British Army in 1941.
Second World War The camp was built in MayOctober 1941 which was composed primarily of
Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Cultybraggan was designated as prisoner of war camp 21. Initially, Cultybraggan was used as a
labour camp for Italian prisoners of war, A nearby camp designated 21A was located in Cowden, Comrie, which could hold up to 500 overflow prisoners from Cultybraggan. Cultybraggan was one of two maximum-security PoW camps in Britain, having a large quantity of "black" or "category C" prisoners - those who were considered to be the most committed
Nazis and likely to cause trouble. Prisoners were brought to
Comrie on special railway trains, and were subsequently marched through the village towards Cultybraggan. The camp was divided into four sections of approximately 100
Nissen huts each, designated with the letters A to D. While prisoners were accommodated initially with disregard to categorization, this was changed after a murder on site. British guards were originally responsible for the security of the camp, but had been replaced with
Polish guards of the
Free Polish Forces by 1944. He was sent to Cultybraggan by accident along with conspirators of the failed
Devizes plot, an attempt at staging the mass escape of PoWs from
Le Marchant Camp to attack
London, stalling the
Allied invasion of Germany and turning the tide of the war. The conspirators incorrectly believed that Rosterg had been an
informant of their plot to the British and had been taken to Cultybraggan to spy on them. Six PoWs were convicted in a
military court for his murder, one of which was sentenced to
life imprisonment and the other five hanged at
Pentonville Prison. and the last mass-execution in Britain. Compound B was identified as especially problematic.
Post–Second World War Cultybraggan ceased operations as a PoW camp by May 1947 following the departure of its last prisoners to be
repatriated. The camp hosted numerous units from across Britain including the 4th
Royal Norfolk Regiment (for training in "
Winter warfare") and
Army Cadets. Construction of the bunker was completed in 1990 in the north-east of the camp, at a cost of £30 million. The structure was built over two floors – the upper floor hosted an
operations room and communication facilities; the lower floor consisted of accommodation, catering facilities and
air filtration units. In the event of a
nuclear war, the bunker would have been used by the
Scottish Office as a
command and control centre. The threat from the Cold War receded soon after the completion of the bunker, rendering these structures obsolete. The monitoring post was closed by 1992 following the disbandment of the ROC. The bunker remained largely unused and was eventually given to the Ministry of Defence. ==Post-military use==