Fearn Airfield

Fearn tower
© Steven Brown

Fearn airfield, also referred to as Balintore airfield, was a World War II airfield built to the west of Balintore on the shores of the Moray Firth, and which lay to the south of RAF Tain.

Fearn airfield was built as a satellite to RAF Tain, but was taken over by the Royal Navy in 1942, when it came to be known as HMS Owl. The airfield has two control towers, the original single storey RAF building, and the later RN structure with a ground floor and three upper floors. The RAF watch or control tower survives about 100 metres southeast of the later RN building, and comprises a single storey building with iron framed windows and entrance in the east wall, built of brick with harling, with one small internal subdivision and a bench in the main room. The RN control tower was generally reported to have been built by the Royal Marine Engineers to standard designs, with the walls being a mixture of solid brick and reinforced concrete.^[1]

Military camps

Two military camps were established to the east of the airfield.

The main accommodation camp for personnel serving at the airfield lay in the area of a triangular field towards the southeast, near Balintore farm. Little remains, with one small building reported, and hut bases evident on the ground, with the original concrete fence posts still in place around the perimeter.

Loans of Tullich
© Steven Brown

Towards the northeast and the Loans of Tullich was a substantial camp which included not only accommodation, but a hospital and gas decontamination block. Many of the building are reported to remain in this area, together with a number of the original concrete fence posts and some of the original gates, although decay of the site is now accelerating.

Loans of Tullich
© Steven Brown

References

1 ⇑ Francis P. 1996. British military airfields, from airships to the jet age.

External links

Aerial views

^{Live Search Maps is now called Bing Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth is now called Bing Maps for Enterprise, June 2009.}

Map

The locations for the various remains reported by the historic records are plotted as given on the map below, but the markers appears to suffer uncharacteristic offsets and do not appear with their usual close association to the target.

• 21.00 Fearn airfield 114480
• 33 Balintore Farm, military camp 114476
• 34.00 Fearn military camp 114480

⇒ Show marker list

Recent Page Trail: Secrets/MotoringHeritageCentre >> Secrets/CefoilSeaweedFactory >> Secrets/RAFKirkwall >> Secrets/RAFTain >> Secrets/DrinniesWoodAndObservatory