For decades, Gruinard Island was a place most people were better off avoiding. The small, uninhabited island off Scotland's north-west coast had acquired an unusual reputation during and after the Second World War, when stories circulated locally about dead animals, strange military activity and something dangerous left behind. The government eventually put up warning signs and kept people away. What had happened there was not fully understood by the public for years. Gruinard had been used for secret experiments involving anthrax, part of a British wartime effort to investigate biological weapons. The contamination proved remarkably persistent, leaving the island under quarantine for almost half a century before it was officially declared safe in 1990.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
