Nothing to See Here!
Airspeed Oxford N4592 on Lammerlaw
The Championships at Edinburgh are not one of my favourites because there's not many crash sites in range that I can visit.
I knew before I set off that there was not much chance of finding anything at this one. An article in an 'After the Battle' magazine I have describes how the Locals had picked the crash site clean.
"The next day (Sunday, October 29) we went to the British aircraft crash, this was soon identified as an Airspeed Oxford despite the fact that the machine being of wood and fabric construction had literally disintegrated on diving into the ground. The large area strewn with wreckage was visible from miles away. This was to us better than the German aeroplane where people kept telling you not to touch anything. Here one could help oneself and out came the pliers and screwdrivers! It is true to say that in a few weeks most of the aeroplane disappeared, even the seven cylinder cheetah engines were taken apart and robbed of various components. With our haul we passed the Heinkel site on the way home and there was a steady stream of people going up and coming down from it. It proved a real weekend sightseeing tour for hundreds if not thousands of people. At school on Monday the Heinkel was at first the main topic of conversation but instruments and other odds and ends from the Oxford slowly gained it number one place."
One advantage of not expecting to find anything was I wouldn't be disappointed when I didn't find anything and at least I would have had a nice walk and filled my day in.
Parked at Blinkbonny Woods
After cautiously parking on the grass verge, (remembering my experience while visiting a wreck site near Kilsyth*) I continued through a gate and along the old Haddington to Lauder Way which used to be an old trade route in the days before the internal combustion engine.
Approaching Lammerlaw.
The going was going to be easy today because I could follow Landrover tracks to within 200 yards of where the grid ref I had put the crash site, and although it wasn't sunny it was warm; but there was that 'calm before a storm' sort of ambiance!
View from Lammerlaw across to Hopes
Reservoir. I would be that way later in the year at a couple of other
crash sites**.
The Oxford didn't crash on Lammerlaw but on an unnamed hill over the other side of it, this hill had been heavily managed for Grouse Shooting so my chances of finding any Oxford wreckage went from 'highly unlikely' to 'No chance whatsoever Pal.', then there was always the possibility that my grid ref was inaccurate as well!
Where the Oxford crashed.
As it was a long Championships on this day I had loads of time so I spent
a lot of it having a good look around for any wreckage, including in all
the ravines and gullies in the vicinity in case anything had been dumped
in there.
Needless to say I found 'Diddly squat'.
On the walk back to the car,
just
as I was passing the highest part of the track over Lammerlaw, the 'Calm
before the storm' ambiance I mentioned earlier turned into an actually
storm, or to be more precise a snow blizzard.
