RAF Avro Lancaster, Beinn Eighe, crash date 14/03/51
[Picture from wikipedia.org]Google Maps display showing wreckage locations This is one of the most well-known wreck sites in the Scottish mountains and the crash of the aircraft was a very high-profile one causing controversy at the time due to the length of time taken to find the site and recover the bodies of those killed in the crash.
The Lancaster crashed directly below the summit of Còinneach Mòr, one of the tops of Beinn Eighe, into the cliffs of the famous Triple Buttress in Coire Mhic Fhearchair. Many large pieces of wreckage lie scattered on the scree slopes below the cliffs, and some of the wreckage lies in a gully of the Triple Buttress. This gully is only accessible to climbers, and the gully is named 'Fuselage Gully' after the wreckage lying in it, including one of the Lancaster's propellors. See a BBC news item about this here and a photograph of the gully wreckage on the UKClimbing.com website here (requires registration to see the full-size image). Some of the wreckage appears to lie even higher where the gully flattens out onto the summit of plateau of Còinneach Mhòr itself at an altitude of about 900m - some of this higher wreckage may be accessible to hillwalkers, but most appears to be only accessible via a dangerous scramble. You can see some photographs of this higher wreckage (which I have not visited yet) on Flickr galleries here and here.
The site of the lower wreckage lies not far from the main walking route through Coire Mhic Fhearchair onto the summit ridges of Beinn Eighe and many hillwalkers will encounter the wreckage on the lower scree slopes below the Triple Buttress at an altitude of about 600m to 650m, about 100m south of the shore of Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair. Visible in this lower wreckage are all four engines, two wheels, a propellor (with a memorial plaque attached, 16th photo below), and large sections of wings and fuselage. One piece of fuselage or wing (21st photo below) appears to still have the 'X' of the Lancaster's serial number (TX264) visible.
There are some pictures of this site on the TFDACSS website here. There are some photographs of the site and information about the crash on the ACSS website here, the WYACU website here and the PDAAR website here. More photographs and information on these websites:
http://www.torridonmountains.com/lancpic.htm
http://www.pardoes.nildram.co.uk/pages/torridon.htm
http://lasonj.blogspot.com/2009/08/beinn-eighe-again-2122nd-aug-09.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20010304/ai_n13957724/
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/birth-of-a-nature-reserve%E2%80%A6-death-of-an-aircrew/003664/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-12749720There are some photos of the site on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncayr/228670337/in/set-72157594281658146/The February 2012 issue of the Scottish Mountaineer magazine has a short article about a winter climb in Fuselage Gully with some pictures of the wreckage.
This was one of the first aircraft wreck sites I ever came across whilst walking in the Scottish mountains, in August of 2002.
These pictures were taken in July 2010.
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