Volunteer research solves Orford Ness mystery
Tenacious volunteer researchers have finally uncovered the real use of a mysterious 50m concrete ring at Orford Ness, a once top-secret military testing site now left to nature on the Suffolk coast.
Since acquiring the site in 1993, National Trust staff, volunteers and visitors haven’t known what the large concrete ring was for, but thanks to the dedication of a band of researchers, and a transatlantic adventure for two friends - Steve Clifton and Olaf Kirchner - the concrete ring is now known to have been part of an innovative over-the-horizon radar, known as the R-System, which was designed and built to detect nuclear explosions and rocket launches during the Cold War.
Built by the US Air Force in the early 1960s, the ring supported a steerable helical transmitter and featured double rows of receivers, 150m from end to end, that could detect activity from thousands of miles away.
By the end of the 1960s, the technology had been phased out and replaced with satellites. Only eight structures of this design are believed to have been constructed around the world - including at Roswell in New Mexico and Muirkirk in Maryland.
Olaf, Steve and Steve’s brother Ian first visited Orford Ness in 2018 as part of a guided tour and were captivated by its otherworldly landscape and mysterious military buildings.
They later joined the volunteer-led research group, International Research Group Orford Ness (IRGON) to help research the site and the top-secret military experiments that took place there between 1915 and 1972, the period including the First, Second and Cold Wars.
In 2020, using technical drawings, aerial photographs and declassified files from AWRE Aldermaston[1] and Google Earth, National Trust volunteer and researcher David Warren and his team formed a working theory about the purpose of the concrete ring. IRGON member David Emery then succeeded in tracing and contacting the designer Ed Lyon in the United States.
The question was, what else was known about the global network of R-System radars, and what part did Orford Ness play?
In October 2025, Steve and Olaf travelled to Muirkirk in Maryland, where they identified and photographed a similar concrete ring and met with 94-year-old Edwin Lyon, chief designer of the R-System, who confirmed its existence and provided a rare snapshot into Cold War history, and also shared valuable photographic and video evidence from 60 years earlier.
Olaf said: “It turned out that Ed himself had no idea that this radar system had been set up in England.
“He’d had to get security clearance to talk to us about it and we listened in awe for over two hours, getting first-hand accounts of Cold War intelligence gathering systems. It was a researcher’s dream.”
After interviewing Ed, the two friends travelled to Roswell in New Mexico, where they located a second ring and, with real-time support from David Emery back in night-time England, confirmed that the precise location and orientation of the extensive system of aerials were similar to those on Orford Ness.
No-one could be found on either site in the US to have any knowledge of the original purpose of the rings.
Since then, they have shared their findings with the wider teams at Orford Ness and IRGON, determined to keep the story of Ed and his invention alive.
Olaf continued: “Due to the extreme secrecy under which they worked, people on Orford Ness never spoke of their projects and often took their details to their grave.”
“While the reports covering their work are now mostly declassified, finding them is often difficult. Understandably, access for closer inspection and measurement of this and other military remnants on Orford Ness is strictly controlled, both for safety reasons and so as not to disturb ground-nesting birds and other wildlife on this very special habitat.
“Even large, obvious remnants on the shingle of Orford Ness, just like the concrete ring, still await explanations, which is why we’re working in partnership with the National Trust to tell the stories of the place and its people and ensure their achievements are never forgotten.”
Angus Wainwright, Regional Archaeologist for the National Trust’s East of England region, says: “This structure has always intrigued me, it’s one of Orford Ness’s many mysteries!
“Like all the places we care for, our understanding of what happened on Orford Ness is constantly evolving. Research is important to us, and we are always trying to further our understanding.
“Years ago, I quizzed some Orford veterans who worked in the building next door while the structure was operating, and they didn’t know what it was for. It’s only through the tenacity of these researchers that its secret function has now been revealed.”
Find out more about IRGON here.