Archaeology Notes

Event ID 816750

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/816750

NO42SE 59.02 46013 20797 and 46190 20794

Seven general service aircraft sheds (hangars) built in the late and post-First World War period. Three groups of coupled sheds with one single Aeroplane Repair Section (ARS) shed to the immediate N. The sheds (hangars) are of timber clad construction, the coupled sheds being earlier than the single which was built with concertina type doors as opposed to the original doors with flat sheeting. The seven hangars are visible on RAF wartime vertical air photographs (NLA 48, 5.7-8 and 5.13, flown 25 September 1942 and NLA 68, 3004-8, flown 27 August 1943), and the roof camouflage pattern was altered between the aforementioned dates. The depiction on the OS 1:10000 map (1982) would appear to suggest that only two of the coupled double sheds survive at the E and W ends of the original group (NO 46013 20797 and NO 46190 20794).

Information from RCAHMS (DE), November 2001

One double coupled general service shed (the central one of the three), has been removed and replaced with a modern adminstrative and store block and a single repair shed of the same design has also been removed. Two groups of coupled sheds survive and that to the E has a plaque describing the history of the hangar. Both groups are of the Belfast Truss design with wooden framed roof girders. The hangar to the E is in almost original condition, whilst that to the W has been modified internally by the addition of a brick dividing wall between the two sheds. The doors are of a flat sheeted design.

The coupled sheds at Leuchars were completed in advance of other buildings on the aerodrome.

Built at the end of the First World War and completed in 1918 the hangars are similar to those demolished at Montrose.

Visited by RCAHMS (DE, DC, SH), 17 March 2005