RAF in Scotland (C-D)

• Opened: 1942
• Closed: 1945
• Details: Also known as West Cairnbeg, the station was located around 14 miles southwest of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. It was used as a relief landing ground (RLG) during WWII by, amongst other units, No. 8 Flying Training School (FTS). Pilots used the airfield for practice forced landings (PFLs), operating aircraft including Miles Masters and Airspeed Oxfords.

• Opened: 1916
• Closed: 1919
• Details: A relief landing ground (RLG) around ten miles northwest of Berwick-upon-Tweed was used by No. 77 (Home Defence) Squadron during WWI, operating Royal Aircraft Factory BE2s and BE12s. 

• Opened: 1941 (approx.)
• Closed: 1945
• Details: A landing ground for use by No. 11 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) was situated around seven miles northeast of Perth during WWII. De Havilland Tiger Moths were among the aircraft used to train pilots based at Scone (see later).

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1947
• Details: Aircraft activity at the site around four miles east of Stranraer dates to before WWI. A contingent of aircraft, including BE2s, flew from Montrose, stopping off at Castle Kennedy in August 1913—the first aircraft to land in the county—prior to flying to take part in military manoeuvres in Ireland. Aircraft were fitted with flotation bags in case they were forced to ditch while crossing the Irish Sea.However, it would be WWII when a station was founded. June 1941 saw the Central Gunnery School (CGS) move in, and when they departed, No. 10 Air Gunnery School (AGS) arrived, operating Boulton Paul Defiants and Westland Lysanders. No. 3 AGS and No. 2 Torpedo Training Unit (TTU) also operated from Castle Kennedy. When both left, No. 57 MU took over, the station becoming a No. 104 storage sub-site until it was closed in 1947. The location was used for civil aviation until the late 1950s. 

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1945
• Details: The station’s location on the northern mainland coast, just east of Thurso, made Castletown a strategically important fighter centre. It provided protection for the naval fleet at Scapa Flow in Orkney (see RAF in Orkney and Shetland) during WWII, opening as a satellite for Wick (see later). The Hawker Hurricanes of No. 504 Squadron were among its first arrivals. A range of units and aircraft followed, including 808 Fleet Air Arm (FAA) Squadron operating Fairey Fulmars. Castletown’s role changed as the threat of invasion decreased, with coastal patrols and air-sea rescue duties also carried out from the station. 

                                RAF Castletown

• Opened: 1942
• Closed: 1947
• Details: A site nearby, Eccles Toft (see later), was used during WWI as a landing ground. Charterhall opened early in 1942 as a training centre, where No. 54 Operational Training Unit (OTU) instructed on aircraft including Bristol Beaufighters and Blenheims, and later Mosquitos, at the location around eight miles northwest of Coldstream in the Borders. 

• Opened: 1916
• Closed: 1918
• Details: Used as a staging point for Royal Flying Corps aircraft heading north or south, the location in the southwesterly suburbs of Edinburgh officially became a RFC station in 1916. It was used as a landing ground by No. 77 Squadron operating a range of aircraft including BE2s and BE12s.

• Opened: 1942
• Closed: 1945; now Oban Airport
• Details: Civil aircraft used the airfield, located around five miles northeast of Oban, from the mid-1930s. The military ceded control of the location during WWII as an emergency landing ground for Fighter Command, and the station was also a Coastal Command site. In 1944, No. 244 Maintenance Unit (MU) took control, becoming an Air Ammunition Park. The station was also used as an overflow accommodation centre for RAF Oban (see later). 

• Opened: 1918
• Closed: 1961
• Details: Created towards the end of WWI, No. 27 Training Depot Station was located at the site around nine miles southeast of St Andrews. Crail was also used by No. 104 Squadron and, for a short time, the American 120th Aero Squadron. The station was mothballed until WWII, when the Royal Navy took over in October 1940 as HMS Jackdaw for use as a torpedo bomber reconnaissance (TBR) base, continuing to operate aircraft from the site until the early 1960s. Due to the station remaining well preserved and the four runways still intact, Crail has been granted Listed status.  

RAF Creetown

• Opened: 1933
• Closed: 1945
• Details: While not an official RAF station, a grass landing strip just north of Creetown in Dumfries and Galloway, around six miles southeast of Newton Stewart, was available to No. 8 Gliding School from the 1930s and throughout WWII. It was initially used by the Duchess of Bedford, the eponymous "Flying Duchess," who used to fly her own plane when visiting Cairnsmore House nearby.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1955; now Inverness Airport
• Details: No. 614 Squadron was among the first arrivals at the station in 1940. The grass landing area was soon replaced by three tarmac runways, with No. 2 Air Gunnery School (AGS) operating Boulton Paul Defiants and Westland Lysanders, later upgraded to Vickers Wellingtons and Avro Ansons.Amongst the biggest training units at Dalcross during WWII was No. 19 Pilots Advanced Flying Unit (PAFU), operating Airspeed Oxfords, with five RLGs required during their stay at Dalcross between October 1942 and February 1944. While the station was placed under civilian control post-war, becoming Inverness Airport in preference to RAF Longman (see later), the RAF continued to use its runways. No. 8 Advanced Flying Training School formed there in May 1951 before disbanding in 1953. RAF flying stopped in the mid-1950s, but Nos. 662 and 663 Gliding School RAF were based at the site for a time in the 1960s. 

                                                  RAF Dalcross

• Opened: 1943
• Closed: 1945
• Details: Opening as a training station with No. 14 PAFU flying Airspeed Oxfords, Dallachy later became a multinational centre. It was reorganized for operational use as part of RAF Coastal Command, with No. 144 Squadron joined by No. 404 Royal Canadian Air Force and No. 455 Royal Australian Air Force. Many of the units based at the site, ten miles east of Elgin, undertook anti-shipping operations, with a range of aircraft flying out of Dallachy including Bristol Beaufighters. Closing shortly after the end of hostilities, most of the runways and the perimeter track remain intact today. 

• Opened: 1917
• Closed: 1921
• Details: Opening during WWI, a landing ground close to Delny House, around 15 miles north of Inverness, was used by both the RFC and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), later coming under the RAF umbrella when it was formed in April 1918. While its closure date is given as 1921, newspaper reports indicate it was still being utilized as an RAF landing ground during the 1930s.

• Opened: 1917
• Closed: 1959
• Details: A landing ground was established for No. 77 Squadron during WWI at a site east of Dunfermline, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. Records indicate that Donibristle was, however, never used by the RFC, instead transferring to Royal Navy control as a maintenance site for naval aircraft—a role which continued until the early 1920s.After a short period under care and maintenance, the station returned to activity in a joint role for both the RAF and the Royal Navy, with No. 100 Squadron operating Hawker Horsleys on coastal defence duties. The Torpedo Training Flight (TTF) formed there in the early 1930s, soon becoming No. 22 Squadron operating Vickers Vildebeests. Just before the outbreak of WWII, Donibristle was transferred to the Royal Navy, with HMS Merlin established as a repair yard—a role it maintained through to the 1950s.

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1945
• Details: A satellite landing ground (SLG) for RAF Kinloss was created at a site just north of the Dornoch Firth in the Highlands during WWII, with Nos. 45 and 46 MUs using the grass airfield and its surrounding site for the storing of a range of aircraft.

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