One for a rainy day.
Hawker Sea Hurricane NF684 on Whitelee Hill.
(Distance covered =
4.5 mile/Ascent =+98m)
It was the SDTA Championships in Paisley but Heather didn't have to be there until 10:30am, which mean't a late start for me if I went off walking.
Stuart Whittaker had found the location of a Sea Hurricane crashsite on the internet which was only a couple of miles walk, when he told me he commented that it might be a good one for a rainy day. So as it was not very far down the road from Paisley and because it was most definately a rainy day I set off to have a look.
Parked up at the entrance to the track leading up to
Croilburn.
For this walk I was without one very useful and reliable bit of kit which I had been using for the last 8 years, Blueberry Esmerelda Muffin II. The faithfull old Pug had been retired; after doing nearly half a million miles she had simply become worn out. I was to find out on my return to the car today that a VW Golf is nowhere near as handy to get changed in when it is pissing down with rain and you are soaking wet!
Above and below:-Along the track past Croilburn to Whitelee Wind Farm.
Actually I was without two useful items today as our printer had packed in so I was unable to print off a map. I was therefore relying on my memory of the windfarm access roads and a description Stuart had found on the internet of how to find the crashsite.
The main access road through Whitelees Windfarm.
It didnt prove too difficult to find the crashsite as there was signposts at each junction pointing to the numbered windturbines and I knew I needed to be between Turbines F192 and F194, once there the directions to find the site in amongst the trees wern't needed as the area immediately around the crashsite had been felled and there was a memorial in the form of a large white cross which was now visible from the access road.
The white cross is next to the last solitary bush before the treeline.
Above and below:-Memorial cross at the crashsite of Sea Hurricane NF684.
Although there was no wreckage visible at
this location I had come across a large panel from this Sea Hurricane on one
of my previous walks to a Hawker Typhoon crashsite on Queenside Muir in
Clyde Muirsheil Country Park*.
The panel had been taken to Clyde Muirsheil
to be utilised as a sled to recover the Typhoon's prop and reduction gear
but bad weather forced the operation to be abandoned. Thereafter the
prescence of the Sea Hurricane panel caused some confusion as to what had
actually crashed on Queenside Muir until the panel and the prop were
eventually recovered in 2017 and are now on display at the Dumfries and Galloway
Aviation Museum.
Large panel from NF684.
Apart from the memorial there was one other thing of interest at this site that I have not seen at any other crashsite. Sitting on a treestump adjacent to the memorial was a plastic basin with a welly boot in it.
above and below:-Plastic basin and welly boot, did someone wash the mud off their wellies then forget to put one back on and hopped home?
Above and below:- Memorial.
Click this link for more information about the crash
Sea Hurricane NF684