Archaeology Notes

Event ID 859623

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/859623

NJ66SW 42 62399 64068

The remains of the farmstead of Woodside of Whyntie are situated within the boundary of the former World War II airfield of Banff, Boyndie (NJ66SW 21.00), about 61m W of the north-eastern boundary of Whyntie Wood. The farmstead buildings stand within an enclosure of about 0.5 hectares amongst the concrete hut platforms which formed the technical site for the airfield.

The remaining single storey building stands to roof height and measures about 13.3m by 5.3m overall with an outshot to the NE. There are chimneys at each end with two bays with entrance in the SE-facing elevation. Internally two fireplaces were noted.

Surrounding the upstanding building are the remains of a range running to the N now reduced to rubble, the front garden and other sturctures not identified.

The farmstead is depicted as roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Banffshire, 1871-74, sheet iv), but not annotated, and shown as a single roofed building with a well. By the date of the 2nd edition (ibid) it had been enlarged to include the range, enclosures and another small building, in effect the extent that is visible today.

The farmstead would have been requisitioned in about 1942 along with another known as 'Springfield Croft' to the NW when the Ministry of War purchased all the land to allow the construction of the airfield. It is possible that the living quarters were utilised by the Military during the war, but on the abandonment of the military establishment in 1945-46, the farmstead was probably allowed to become derelict, though it is still roofed on the vertical air photographs of 1946 (106G/Scot/UK 108, 4054-4055, flown 23 May 1946)..

Visited by RCAHMS (DE, NG), 28 February 2008