# Crimond Airfield, Aberdeenshire



## Seahorse (Dec 7, 2009)

OK, here we go with some pics from Crimond airfield. 'Twas a Royal Navy airfield, and used today as an aerial farm, so it's not possible to get close to some of the old site due to big blokes with guns.

However, this part of the airfield seems to get missed for some reason. Probably because you have to deal with either man eating bovines, or swamps. Or both.

Anyway, here's a LINKY to see where I was at. I'd popped on over to try to find an elusive pillbox, but I fear it has gone. There is a pile of concrete at the edge of the marsh, but I don't think it equates to a demolished Type 24 to be honest.

Still, while I was there, I captured some pics, and here's a flavour. I have NO IDEA what any of the buildings were for, and the blast walls at strategic points around the track intrigue me cos I've not seen their like before.

The first building I came across. With water tank in the background.






Note the nice, shiny new Chubb lock? Hmmm.





Roof collapsed, and interior full of crap.





Cow damage has exposed the inner liner. But note the intact blacked out window. No, I never did manage to find out what was inside. 





Next structure. The window obviously had bars across it. For what purpose?





Confused Dot Com





And the road leads to?





Just a brick hut surrounded by an earth berm. Hmmm.










And all around the road are these curious blast walls. Presumably, they would have had earth berms too, to absorb any blast. Maybe.





And finally, this curious little Y shaped hut.





That's all for now. I'll try to get as much of the rest of the airfield as and when I can.


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## night crawler (Dec 8, 2009)

Interesting, though the blokes with gun's is a worry, is it still used by the forces? The earth coverd buildings could be bomb stores. Used to be an Navy airfiled near me and I remember seeing planes there when we went past on the train but now most of it is owned by the UKAEA and the old hangers to the side are storage.


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## cptpies (Dec 8, 2009)

Definitely bomb stores those ones covered in earth.


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## Pincheck (Dec 8, 2009)

so is this airfield abandoned ? looking at your link there seams to be a lot of there not to mention what looks like a listening station to the west here


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## cptpies (Dec 8, 2009)

As Seahorse mentioned it's now an MOD aerial farm.

Seahorse, I suspect that pillbox is severely misplaced and should site on the coast along with the others. A real problem with old airfields is that the one's still in MOD hands do not have their plans published at the RAF museum so their defence layouts are unknown apart from any that still survive.


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## Seahorse (Dec 8, 2009)

Bomb stores? Even though they are not covered? The earth is merely berms, and don't cover anything at all. I suppose so, because equally, if there was an accident, the blast would be contained within the walls.

Hmm, which makes me hazard a guess at the use of the covered "car wash" type building. perhaps the bombs were driven into there and fuzed, before being taken out for loading. The fuzes being stored in the small room on the side which originally had bars on the window?


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## Seahorse (Dec 8, 2009)

Pincheck said:


> so is this airfield abandoned ? looking at your link there seams to be a lot of there not to mention what looks like a listening station to the west here



There used to be an Ace High installation at that site Pincheck. It's a source of much regret that I never bothered to take pics on any of my many visits when it was abandoned in the early 90's, cos it has now completely gone. The remaining dishes etc actually belong to BT. There is no military activity whatsoever.

I tell a lie, there is still evidence of a military presence; at least one weapon unloading bay remains. Hardly worth going back for a pic though.


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## zimbob (Dec 8, 2009)

Seahorse said:


> Hmm, which makes me hazard a guess at the use of the covered "car wash" type building. perhaps the bombs were driven into there and fuzed, before being taken out for loading. The fuzes being stored in the small room on the side which originally had bars on the window?



Exactly right I'd say 

The one at RAF Tain looks similar :






Slightly different, but Tain was RAF rather than RN, and it too has the long curving road in, and out. It's described on the 1944 site plan as 'Fused and Spare Bomb Store'

I rather like the idea of 'Spare Bomb's


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## Seahorse (Dec 8, 2009)

zimbob said:


> I rather like the idea of 'Spare Bomb's



That's handy. So like, you could just nip in and borrow one until the end of the month if you used yours all up in one go?


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## Bryag (Dec 8, 2009)

zimbob said:


> Exactly right I'd say
> 
> The one at RAF Tain looks similar :



I was thinking exactly the same thing. Of course the one in Tain would have ben completely covered in earth and grass. There is no reason why the Crimmond one wouldn,'t have been either


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## Seahorse (Dec 9, 2009)

I don't think the Crimond car wash would have been earth covered. The presence of a window would tend to dismiss this, and the size of the wee room would negate the requirement anyway. No, fuzes held there only, well away from all those nasty explosives. 

I think the spare bomb store is the rather larger, and earth berm surrounded, brick hut in pics 7, 8 and 9. There was a building surrounded by earth in pic 10. A Nissan hut also lies on the track, although the end wall has collapsed, and the curved iron supports lie like giant ribs in the rubble.

I don't think anything was actually earth covered, as I think the idea was simply to direct any blast upwards. Some of the walls are too low to have had ceilings, so even the wee bomb hauling tractors wouldn't have been able to proceed around the track if they were covered.

Anybody got an idea for the last pic? It's right out on its own over by a bridge, so maybe just something as simple as a shelter for guards? There's no evidence of a road or entrance at that point.


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## graybags (Dec 9, 2009)

*Crimond*

RNAS Merganser ?

Never knew it existed

But interesting history, thanks WIKI !

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNAS_Merganser[/ame]

G


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## Seahorse (Dec 9, 2009)

Yes, indeedy Graybags. 

You may also be interested to note that the site I reported on in this thread HERE, was in fact intended as the hospital for the airfield.

However, it was never used, as construction finished just in time to see auld Adolf chuck in the towel. This info gleaned from the local rag here... http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1123266



> Camp Crimond may become homes
> move to transform 20-acre site will create jobs and clear up eyesore, says developer
> 
> By Jamie Buchan
> ...



I have literally just heard on the grapevine this morning, that they are looking into the possibility of siting a crematorium here.

Personally, I think it looks like it will be a burning issue for quite a while, although it's unlikely to have any grave consequences. 

(The crematorium bit is true. I just couldn't resist the obvious puns.  )


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