RAF Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Beinn Stacach, crash date 23/11/40


[Picture from wikipedia.org]

OS 10-figure grid refs (GPS):

NN 47615 17210
NN 47697 17178
NN 47726 17204
NN 47756 17149

Google Maps display showing wreckage locations

This site lies at an altitude of between about 640m and 570m, 2 km north-east of the summit of Beinn Stacach (other names for this hill are Stob Fear-tomhais and Ceann na Baintighearna) near Balquhidder. There are some scattered remains at the site, mostly unidentifiable mangled pieces of metal, but some clearly undercarriage parts. There is a noticeable scar on the hillside where the aircraft impacted the mountain, and wreckage is scattered from this point downwards to the Allt Fathan Glinne below.

I discovered a small piece of the wreckage some distance eastwards away from the main impact site at grid ref. NN 48784 17665, but I believe this has been carried to this point for some reason. There are also some photographs of wreckage on a forum here, that also seem to be some distance away from the main site.

This site used to be one of the most well-known wreck sites in the Scottish Highlands - large and intact pieces of the aircraft were highly visible until 1980, when the site was largely cleared. There is some discussion about this on a forum here and here.

There are some pictures of this site on the PDAAR website here, the ACSS website here and the NBSAB website here. The HHG2 book has an interesting chapter describing the details and immediate aftermath of this crash.

Elliot Simpson has some great photos of the site taken in 1973, when there were large parts of the wreckage remaining, which can be seen here.

These pictures were taken in May 2009.