The Typhooricane
Hawker Typhoon DN365 on Queenside Muir
(Distance covered = 4.7 mile/Ascent = +290m)
Another Dancing competition in Glasgow for Heather so another chance to visit one of my favourite places ; Clyde Muirsheil Country Park.
From the visitors centre at Clyde Muirsheil there is a road that continues up the valley to an abandoned Barytes Mine, this road passes within half a mile of the wrecksite I was planning on visiting. The aircraft involved is listed in many publications including a Clyde Muirsheil Park Guide as a Hawker Hurricane.
setting off from the visitors centre along the mine road
My unquestionable good luck with the Scottish weather was very evident on this day as it was clear blue skies and scorching hot as I set off along the mine road and it was to stay like that all day.
There's a slightly better bridge 100yrds further on
After following the mine road for a mile or so I turned off to the west and headed uphill to find Queenside Loch, which although of quite a size is well hidden in the hillside. At the southern end of the loch was my search area for the Hurricane which was reported as only having small fragments remaining.
View south from Queenside Hill, the crashsite of Anson L7948 on Lairdside Hill is marked.
After an initial search of the area around the grid ref I had, I succeeded in finding nothing, so I started to search farther afield until I eventually ended up on top of Queenside hill. From the top of the hill I could see the location of two other crashsites on the neighbouring hills.
View north to Hill of Stake and the crashsite of Seafire PR423
After some lunch in the sunshine on the top of Queenside Hill I returned to the grid ref I had for the Hurricane and set off to search a bit more to the North and immediately came across a big lump of metal which turned out to be the reduction gear with one propellor still attached from the front of a Napier Sabre Engine. As Hurricanes used Rolls Royce Merlin engines this meant the Aircraft that crashed here was actually a Hawker Typhoon .
The napier sabre was an H-block engine with 2 crankshafts running two reduction gears each, 3 of the 4 reduction gears run by the crankshafts are still in situ
A Napier Sabre Engine as fitted to the Typhoon, the piece on Queenside Muir is circled although minus the prop on this engine.
A Rolls Royce Merlin Engine as fitted to the Hurricane, the reduction gear and prop mounting is also circled and is clearly not what is on Queenside Muir
Lying close to the propeller is a large alloy panel, this alloy panel is from a Sea Hurricane which crashed in an entirely different location. The panel was brought here by an Aviation Museum with the aim of putting the prop and reduction gear onto it to enable them to drag it off the hillside. When the weather turned bad they abandoned both items. This has probably caused the confusion over which type of Aircraft crashed here. In 2017 the Museum returned and recovered both the Sea Hurricane Panel and the Typhoon parts for display in their Museum.
Just missed getting an airliner in the shot The alloy panel from the
Sea Hurricane.
The panel and the prop, the panel probably has a serial number on it which someone used to identify it
as belonging to a
Sea Hurricane.
On the way back to the carpark in temperatures more akin to Spain than Scotland
One of the reasons I like Clyde Muirsheil Park so much is the Visitors centre has showers in the toilet block, which on this day were especially welcome. There is also a nice little cafe and a Rangers office which is usually manned by very helpful Rangers who do like you to let them know where your going and what time your due back in case anything happens .
