External Reference

Event ID 935316

Category Documentary Reference

Type External Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/935316

Montrose is the oldest military airfield in Scotland, dating back to 1912 and displaying the hangar architecture of several periods. Two Bellman hangars were built to replace those destroyed in an air raid, and still stand today. The original Battle HQ was housed in an elaborate pillbox (NO75NW 31.08), mounting an AA gun on the roof, built into a bridge over a disused railway which runs past the airfield. It was later replaced by a standard building on the eastern perimeter.

After the post-WWII withdrawal of the RAF, the airfield has been used occasionally by light aircraft, by British Airways helicopters for night training and by RAF Hercules aircraft. It is now a centre for microlight flying.

Two of the First World War hangars have been dismantled and re-erected at the railway museum at Bo'ness, West Lothian.

D J Smith 1983; B Quarrie 1987