When looking for somewhere to holiday in Somerset, there are plenty of options available, and the new opportunity to stay in a former nuclear bunker is set to hopefully become available.

If the county’s many fine hotels and bed-and-breakfasts are not to your liking, you could choose a glamping pod, renting a caravan pitch or simply camping under the stars, possibly on the coast, writes Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby.

The small village of Holford, on the northern edge of the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), already caters for different kinds of holidaymakers, with numerous Airbnb properties scattered around and the Moorhouse campsite lying just off the A39.

But drive a little further north of the latter site, along Kilton Road, and you’ll come across a small field with what appears to be a chimney sticking out of the ground.

This is the site of a nuclear bunker which was used the during the Cold War – and if the owner gets his way, you could soon spend your holiday there.

Neil McCallum has applied for planning permission to turn the bunker, a stone’s throw from Kilton Farm, into a holiday let, allowing tourists to live underground for short periods.

The bunker – which provided 14 sq m of space inside – is one of 1,500 of its kind, constructed in the 1950s to provide emergency shelter in case tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union boiled over into nuclear war.

Most of the sites were decommissioned in the late-1960s, though some remained in active use until the USSR’s collapse in December 1991.

There is legal precedent for converting these bunkers into holiday accommodation, with similar plans for a bunker in the South Downs National Park (which straddles Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex) getting the go-ahead in 2019.

Like those proposals, Mr McCallum intends to expose the bunker on the northern and western sides and partially extend it, installing solar panels to provide energy for heating and lighting.

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The bunker will be marketed to walkers and cyclists wishing to visit either the Quantock Hills or the West Somerset Coast Path.

A spokesman for Shattock Associates (representing Mr McCallum) said: “The concealed bunker will be accessed via a new stair built within the proposed lightwell.

“On the plot of land that the bunker occupies, a parking and turning area will be created for a single car.

“The bunker will be used as a retreat by the applicant, but will also be available to rent by like-minded holiday-makers.”

The bunker will be able to accommodate two people on single fold-down beds, and will also include a kitchen, shower room with toilet and a patio area.

Somerset West and Taunton Council is expected to make a decision on the plans by March 31; any decision after this date will be made by the new unitary Somerset Council.