Glenforsa Airfield, Isle of Mull, Scotland
Here it's a rather better day and we're on final for runway 25. We got this picture from another web site, the author of which doesn't know who took it, but whoever they are, please let us know and come back and you will receive due attribution and a suitable token of thanks.
We are looking across the narrow isthmus that separates North from
South Mull, to see the western sea and the rough islet of Eorsa
(there's nothing on it but a few goats). Beyond it are the cliffs
of Gribun - drive below them in a gale at your peril. Beyond the
runway to the right is the village of Salen, and in the trees to
the left of the runway is the Glenforsa Hotel. You may taxi
almost to the doorstep of the bar. For further details, click on
the link above for Glenforsa Airfield General Information.
We say in Mull that you don't need to travel to see the world, because the world comes to see you. Two recent examples of this were when my daughter went to Iona, an island that attracts many tourists off the west of Mull, and saw Norman Lamont, ex-British Chancellor of the Exchequer, sitting on a wall and taking his boots and socks off. Then later that summer, a friend of ours who does bed and breakfast had the French footballer Eric Cantona turn up on her doorstep.
Much the same seems to apply to Glenforsa Airfield as regards aircraft. Hang around the place long enough, and sooner or later every type capable of landing there will turn up, and even a few that aren't capable. We are fortunate that airfield manager David Howitt always has his camera handy, and that he has allowed me access to his extensive photograph collection to make a selection of more interesting ones. All images are © David unless otherwise stated.
The original purpose of the airfield's being built was to permit emergency flights, so it is appropriate to begin this page with a dramatic picture of a 1990 night medical evacuation using a Sea King:
Another visit from the Armed Forces involved a Chinook helicopter. The purpose of this 1999 visit is not known. Here we see the crew, and also Sgt. Muir and P.C. Erskine (now a Sergeant?) of the Mull Constabulary. The Chinook is the same type as the helicopter which flew into the Mull of Kintyre, but not this actual aircraft I am assured. In this pic, the pilot is the tiny little lady surrounded by all those biggish men!
The Isle of Mull and the Mull of Kintyre are frequently confused. There are two different Gaelic words involved, pronounced 'moola' and 'mayerll', but the English spellings are the same. Often we get hippies and their like turning up, asking "hey man, where's Paul?". Seems they are looking for Paul McCartney the Beatle, who has a place down on the Mull of Kintyre. We have to tell them that they are about 80 miles too far north.
Speaking of hippies, I could go on to tell of the time when several tons of cannabis were washed up in Mull, but that's a subject for a different web site. So here's the Chinook:
|
While on the subject of helicopters, this is an unusual sight but often seen over Mull. The chopper is carrying buckets of young salmon - 'smolts' to use the technical term - from the fresh water hatchery in Loch Ba to the fattening cages in sheltered sea lochs. The aircraft simply dunks these containers into the cages, the fish swim out, and they are lifted again. The protrusions on the sides of the buckets are floats which cause the buckets to invert when lifted, tipping out the sea water. The buckets also include oxygen cylinders to give the fish something to breathe during their brief flight. Salmon are energetic fish and require highly oxygenated water. I bet that you didn't know that fish farming could be so technical! Of course these operations do not involve the airfield. It may be under water at times, but never (so far) deep enough for salmon. |
|
| |
I only ever had a few hours on a helicopter - a Hiller 360/12C with the hanging stick - and that was hard enough to control. I can't imagine what it would be like to fly it with that lot dangling beneath you. This photograph was taken in 1999. We heard a few weeks later that this aircraft had crashed somewhere in Argyll, killing the pilot.
That Hiller that I flew - G-ANOB - had an interesting subsequent history. My friend Richard "Brad" Bradbury had another student, and rashly allowed him to fly the thing solo before he had got the necessary paperwork from the CAA in his hot little hand. The man managed, in the flat wastes of East Anglia, to overpitch and put the thing down on top of a hedge. As a result the insurance was invalid, and my helicopter-flying career was abruptly terminated. I was already working on (and obtained) a fixed-wing PPL at Marshall's, Cambridge. I never really liked the Hiller - it struck me as an unnatural form of flight - but I'm told that modern types are much easier. Anyway, the wreckage of the Hiller (from which Brad's student had undeservingly walked away) languished in a hangar for a year or two, and was finally sold to a film company. They doused the wreckage in petrol, hoisted it to a great height using a larger helicopter, set fire to it, and let it drop. The resulting footage was used in one of the James Bond films.
Anyway, that's enough of those machines. Let's look at some proper
aircraft that have turned up at Glenforsa. Working chronologically,
one of the oldest must be this:
Back to top
This is Tony Meakin, in his Boredom fighter warming up his engine.
Actually, this type is not as antique as it looks. It is a sort
of Spad replica made in the USA by Wolf. For further details of
these aircraft, see the Boredom site.
Then this is him again, taking off in it. How was the photograph obtained? Did he and the camera aircraft do a formation take-off to obtain this shot? Apparently not - David says he took it with a 400 mm. lens. I think that this called a "Boredom fighter" because it combats the state of ennui. It can hardly be a boring experience flying one of these.
Another early type to visit was this Anson, still in its Transport Command livery, with owners Mike and Gordon Frazer:
Then Tom Buffaloe turned up in his Gipsy Moth that was used in the film "Out of Africa". He gave David a ride who snapped him from the front seat.
In September 2001, Nigel Rhind and partner arrived in their Chipmunk.
If you're thinking "That's enough aircraft (Ed.)", here for a change is what David calls "that same old Glenforsa sunset". When you get a day like this in Mull, you can forgive it for and forget all the bad days.
One year, probably 1985, we had superb weather for the annual Rally, and an excellent turnout. Camping on the airfield isn't as pleasant as this every year, but there's always the hotel and other local accommodation.
Sometimes David gets a phone call from the RAF and they come over with these C130 Hercules to practice supply drops. Usually they just do a practice overfly. But if they do drop anything, there are officials standing by to spirit the stuff away. They wouldn't want arms and supplies to fall into the hands of the Mull Liberation Army.
As a change from aircraft, here is a superb winter scene taken from George McNeil's R44. I would be interested to know how he avoided camera shake, which for me was always a problem in helicopters.
The big lighthouse is now unmanned, but you can still see the enclosures where the keepers used to have gardens. Outside these they kept a few sheep, and there is a bridge to the adjoining islet. There is still quite decent accommodation which was used by the keepers, and after their departure the island was sold off to an Edinburgh businessman who uses it for a holiday home.
Then some time in the mid-1990s, a discharged prisoner was sent to Mull and put in the care of Neil Morrison, the Craignure policeman, under some Youth Opportunities Scheme even though the man was in his sixties. This was Willie the Axe. Originally from Glasgow, he had been working for the Forestry Commission in Wales. Being somewhat simple-minded, he was teased mercilessly by hs workmates till he finally snapped and killed one of them with his axe. He served 14 years for this, and after discharge was sent up to Mull.
Willie was given a job on the Torosay Estate and by all accounts was a good worker. When Neil came to help me with the deer-stalking he would bring Willie along as his assistant. My German guests were somewhat puzzled when I introduced them as the policeman and the axe-murderer. But then Willie's age started to tell on him, and Neil found him a lighter job as caretaker on the lighthouse island. He was quite comfortable, with water, a generator, a television, and Neil bringing supplies over once a week. He did a grand job keeping unauthorised visitors off the island, but perhaps stories that he ran around the shore brandishing an axe are fanciful. The last news I heard was that Willie is now peacefully settled in a home in Oban.
Returning to the picture above, at the top is Loch Don, a shallow muddy inlet on the south coast of Mull.Everyone knows about the Spanish Armada galleon that was sunk in Tobermory, but there is said to have been another one which made it into Loch Don and ran aground. The locals (so it is said) slaughtered the crew and stripped the vessel down to the keel, so there wouldn't be much left of it if this is true.
There is another historic wreck, a British warship, just off Duart Castle. In recent summers this has been investigated by Prof. Colin Martin and a team from St. Andrews University, and many items have been recovered in a very good state of preservation. There is much information about this wreck and other local matters on Rob Goodson's web site. Rob is a regular summer visitor to Mull from his home in Texas.
Beyond Duart across the bay is Torosay Castle, a Victorian edifice built in Scottish Baronial stype. It is open to the public in summer and well worth a visit. A narrow-gauge (10.25") railway runs from here along the shore to Craignure, the main Mull ferry terminal, top right of the picture. The white dot is the shed on the pier.
Here is a beautiful picture taken with permission from an article by Al Hoy in Pilot magazine. Al is a regular visitor to Glenforsa.
This is an autumn view looking up Loch Leven, with the bridge across its mouth where the Ballachulish Ferry used to run. Beyond the first island are the cages of a fish farm, and beyond the second lot is the village of Glencoe, with the notorious Glen running up between the hills to the right. At the head of the loch out of sight is Kinlochleven, which is noted for its disused slate quarries. But there is now talk of re-opening them, because apparently the slate, unlike some substitutes, is highly impervious to rain.
We hope that you like these pictures, and that it will tempt you to
visit Glenforsa in the off season - it is PPR only at weekends between
October and April. Sometimes in winter a high parks its backside
on Scotland and we get glorious sunny, chilly weather, while often
England freezes to death with cold air from the Continent. In
January 2003 I recorded +10°C while down south it was -6.