The Washing Machine.
Miles Master N7761 on Broadlaw.
(Distance covered = 7.5mile/Ascent =+762m)
The Lannimer Championships are held in Lanark every year, not too far down the road is a hill called Broadlaw which has 4 crashsites on it that I could visit.
My plan was to visit all four on the same day, walking in from the south from a place called 'The Meggets Stone'. When I arrived at Meggets Stone there was good news and there was bad news. The good news was that the one and only place to park wasn't occupied, the bads news being it was chucking it down with rain.
The faithfull old Pug parked at Meggets Stone,
I don't know if the large rock between the car and the gate is the Megget Stone
in question?.
By the time I'd donned my hiking boots and waterproofs it had stopped raining so I took them off again(the waterproofs not the hiking boots) before heading off up the hill. The first rise onto Fans Law was quite severe and by the time I reached the top of that it was raining again.
At the top of the first rise onto Fans Law, Blueberry Esmerelda Muffin can be seen below, parked at
The Meggets Stone.
It appeared that the weather couldn't make its mind up what to do and it was going to take a long time reaching anywhere if I was to keep stopping to put my waterproofs on or take them off. After the next shower only lasted 5 minutes I decided to continue walking through them, I had a change of dry cloths in my rucksack if I became too wet but that never happened as between showers the stiff breeze was drying me out pretty quickly. The whole day would end up giving me a good idea of what it would be like in a washing machine as I was repeatedly rinsed through and then dryed off again by the changing weather.
Approaching Cairn Law
I went to have a look for any remains of an ANEC Mistlethrush first, this crashed during the Newcastle to Edinburgh leg of a Kings Cup Air Race in 1928. I didn't find anything but managed to lose one of the lenses from my binoculors so wasted quite a bit of time looking for that.
On top of Porridge Cairn during one of the drying cycles!
The area where my grid ref put the Mistlethrush remains, I managed to find nothing.
After finding no trace of the first crashsite I headed off to where a DH60 Moth crashed but my grid ref was way off so I was never going to find anything from that because I was looking in the wrong place. Crashsite number 3 on my itinerary, a North American Harvard was about a mile and a half to the northwest but a thick clag full of fat stinging rain descended onto the hill which persuaded me to leave that one for another day.
My grid ref put the DH60 to the right of the tower on the horizon but it was way off.
Crashsite number 4 was a Miles Master which was lower down the hill and hopefully out of the clag so I headed towards that one instead. I had two grid references for this one with any wreckage reported to be somewhere between the two, so I started at the most northerly one and worked my way south. Of course I found the wreckage at the most southerley one.
above and next 11 photos:- Engine Firewall and Bearers from the Miles Master
I was beginning to think I was going to end the day without finding anything so I was very happy when I set off back to the car, not only because I'd at least found one crashsite but also because the wash cycle I'd been enduring seemed to have finished and it was now staying warm and sunny.
Broadlaw on the right, the Master remains are about half way up the slope.
I'll probably make a return visit to Broadlaw to have another look for the two crashsites I failed to find as well as another piece of the Master that lies to the east of the bits I found, I have already been back to visit the Harvard*.
