Morwenstow

Morwenstow, on the north Cornish coast fifteen kilometres up the cliffs from the town of Bude, from which it takes its informal name, was the first station built for the systematic interception of international commercial satellite traffic. "Systematic collection of COMSAT ILC communications began in 1971," Duncan Campbell wrote in his 1999 report to the European Parliament. "Two ground stations were built for this purpose. The first at Morwenstow, Cornwall, England had two 30-metre antennae. One intercepted communications from the Atlantic Ocean Intelsat; the other the Indian Ocean Intelsat." The station, run by GCHQ and worked jointly with the NSA, expanded with the rest of the ECHELON network between 1985 and 1995. Nicky Hager's gazetteer of 1996 counted nine or ten dishes and "extensive operations buildings," visible from the road at Morwenstow or from the cliff path of the South West Peninsula walkway.¹²

Its sister stations in the network are Menwith Hill and Pine Gap.³