Half a one.
Supermarine Spitfire Vb AD540
on Cairnsmore of Carsphairn
(Distance covered =
10.0 mile/Ascent =+742m)
It was going to be a long Championships in Dumfries so I took the opportunity to go and visit two memorials on Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, one where a Spifire crashed and one where the Pilot landed after bailing out.
One problem was the weather, it was atrocious. I mentioned on my webpage about my visit to Wellington L7845* that the weather on that day was the worst I'd ever experienced; well this day has now taken that honour!.
I was kind of hoping that the rain would at
least stop at some point but instead it just varied from heavy drizzle to
torrential downpour, the only dry spell I enjoyed was when I went into the
Clennoch Bothy for half an hour to eat my bait.
The route I was walking
was the same one as I took to visit a Bristol Blenheim which crashed
below Beninner**, at least the first 2.5 mile was, after that it was a further
2.5 mile slog north with the wind and the rain at my back.
Memorial to David Hunter Blair on Dugland.
Because of the atrocious weather I decided pretty
early on that I would only go to the memorial where the Pilot had landed
as although it was a kilometer farther to walk it was right next to a
landrover track on a hill called Dugland. The memorial where the spitfire
crashed was about half a kilometer away from the nearest landy track and
as it was on the other side of the Glen it necessitated negotiating a wooded
area and crossing a burn that was in spate because of all the rain.
After visiting the memorial on Dugland I did contemplate
nipping across to the Spitfire crashsite but I eventually decided to leave it for another day
as it would have been impossible to take any decent photos because of the torrential rain
plus I now had 5 mile walk with the wind and rain in my face to look
forward to.
NEAR THIS SPOT ON 23RD
MAY 1942 PILOT OFFICER
DAVID HUNTER BLAIR
AGED 19-A SCOT FROM
AYRSHIRE WAS MORTALLY
WOUNDED AFTER
AFTER PARACHUTING FROM
SPITFIRE Mk VB AD540
BLUE PETER HE DIED
THAT
OTHERS MAY LIVE
LEST WE FORGET 1992