Report - RNAS Twatt, Orkney Islands, August 2020

mookster · Aug 8, 2020

Recently I was given the chance to go up to the furthest far reaches of Scotland with one of my friends to do a delivery and of course the plan was to get all the work done and then do a few explores afterwards and on the way home whilst collecting other things. On the drive up I lost count of the amount of derelict buildings I pinned on my phone to check out but unfortunately due to the timings and having to do collections we only got around a few places. It was an incredible roadtrip though, in some seriously mixed weather going from no more than 12 degrees celsius in torrential rain on our arrival in the Orkney Islands to coming home to baking scorchio sunshine.

Of course one of the main places on the list to go when on the Orkney mainland island is Twatt - unfortunately all the road signs have long since been removed by the local council as they were stolen so often! Nowadays the only places you can find Twatt written on things other than souvenirs is the board outside Twatt Church, and the entrance to this former RNAS base, some history of which can be found below.

This unfortunately named airfield was opened on 1 April 1941 as HMS Tern, otherwise known as RNAS Twatt. The airfield was primarily used for training throughout the Second World War. Large numbers of aircraft visited Twatt for short periods of time after disembarking from airfield carriers in Scapa Flow. No 700 Squadron is an example of a unit that stayed at Twatt for longer. Between June 1942 and disbandment in 1944, the squadron provided final training for catapult aircraft crews before they embarked on their ships. No 771 Squadron similarly came from Hatston at the same time as No 700 Squadron and stayed at Twatt for three years. This unit was a Fleet Requirements Unit (FRU) and therefore operated a large number of different aircraft types in a variety of roles, supporting the fleet based at Scapa Flow. Aircraft used included, Bristol Blenheims, Boulton Paul Defiants, Gloster Sea Gladiators and Vought-Sikorsky Hoverfly helicopters.

Frontline squadrons were also based at Twatt during the Second World War using Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bombers and Fairey Fulmar fighters. Twatt was also unfortunately the site of the first helicopter crash in Britain. A Vought-Sikorsky Hoverfly (known in American service as the R-4) from No 771 Squadron was written off when its tail rotor hit a parked Bristol Blenheim on takeoff.

Twatt was paid off in 1946 but was retained by the Royal Navy under the control of Lossiemouth for some time afterwards. In the 1970s it was suggested that the site could be merged with nearby Skeabrae to form a large NATO base but Iceland was chosen as a location instead.

The airfield was one of the earliest purpose built naval airfields in Britain with four hard runways and associated facilities constructed. Its control tower is particularly unusual in that it was built on top of the operations block. The main technical area was to the south-west with other hangars and dispersal areas spread around the airfield. None of the hangars survive although several buildings do still stand around the site. This includes the control tower and operations block, various support buildings and pillboxes.

As of now the site is left as open farmland, with a few military buildings left as well as a lot of very large cows mooching about, the runways long since dug up and covered by grass. The stairs up to the control tower have all been cut away however you are able to access it on a guided tour we didn't have time to do. There's not a huge amount left to see as it's been empty for so long, but it was somewhere cool to say I've been at least! The pillboxes, built in an unusual style, are visible from the road that runs past the site but the field is full of the aforementioned very large cows so I didn't fancy a close encounter with one of them, the local farmer was also very evident nearby too.