Dark Harvest Commandos: The Complete Manifesto
The full explanation of why activists stole anthrax-laced soil from Gruinard Island and delivered it to Porton Down
On 10 October 1981, the Glasgow Herald ran a short article on the front page: “Anthrax island mystery.” The Herald said it had received a communication from a group claiming to have removed a quantity of soil from Gruinard Island. The island, notorious as a site of biological weapons testing during the Second World War, had been a no-go area since 1943.
The letter, titled “Operation Dark Harvest,” claimed that samples of the contaminated soil would be delivered to sites around the U.K. in order to draw attention to conditions on the island. The Herald ended its short segment with a quote from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), saying they hoped the letter was a hoax.
The next day, 11 October, a bucket contained a 10-pound bag of sealed earth was discovered at Porton Down — the military research facility that oversaw the Gruinard experiments in the 1940s. On 14 October, the MoD confirmed the soil contained anthrax.
