Nucleus

Doubtless Spectator readers based in Caithness will scoff when I say that the old fishing port of Wick (top right corner of the country, close to John O’ Groats) is a bit remote. But for the rest of us, it is. Indeed, its relative isolation is one of the reasons it was chosen to house the archive of the UK nuclear industry, in a brand-new public building called Nucleus. Another is the presence of the Dounreay nuclear plant near Thurso, a big employer in the area, now being slowly dismantled. I went to see Nucleus, relishing the beautiful 110-mile drive up the east coast from Inverness.

Nucleus stands in the flat fieldscape north of the town next to another airport, Wick John O’Groats (only two scheduled services, to Edinburgh and Aberdeen). At first sight its low silvery bulk is like another provincial terminal or hangar. But as the approach road curls round and brings you in through a security fence, it becomes apparent that the building has a higher function.