Several radar stations had been located in the Ravenscar area from 1938, but a more permanent site was built at Bent Rigg in 1941, which was crewed by technicians and other staff from the Royal Air Force.

Bent Rigg, and the wider location around Ravenscar, was deemed "attractive" for the siting of long-range finding equipment.

The proposal to site a radar at Ravenscar was first mooted in 1937, when a party from the Directorate of Works, and representatives from Bawdsey, assessed at least ten locations from the Isle of Wight to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

[6] The equipment didn't last very long at Ravenscar, being donated in spring 1939 to an accelerated site at Netherbutton in the Orkney Islands.

[7][8] With Ottercops Moss in Northumberland now active and covering the Tyneside area, the equipment at Bent Rigg/Ravenscar was dismantled on 1 May 1939, and taken up to Rosyth for shipping to Orkney.

[25] A revamped Ravenscar proved to be one of the most useful early detection sites, it could recognise aircraft at 10,000 feet (3,000 m) at a range of 80 miles (130 km); this gave Newcastle and Middlesbrough a 30-minute warning.

A similar site at Coldingham in Berwickshire (RAF Dronehill), could only detect at 7,000 feet (2,100 m) and a range of 60 miles (97 km), giving Edinburgh a 20-minute warning.

[18][note 3] What remains of the permanent structures is the communications hut, engine house, fuel store and the transmitter/receiver block, which are part of the scheduled designation.

[31] The domestic accommodation was demolished in the latter part of the 1940s, but the foundations are still visible on the west side of the field bordering the former railway line.

[38] Four structures at the technical site remain near to the cliff edge, which is accessible to the public either from the Cleveland Way,[39] or from the Cinder Path, which is the former trackbed of the Scarborough and Whitby Railway line.