RN Fairey Firefly, Meikle Bin, Campsie Fells, crash date 08/01/50


[Picture from wikipedia.org]

OS 10-figure grid refs (GPS):

NS 66643 82197
NS 66434 82232
NS 67041 82451

 Google Maps display showing wreckage locations

I first came across the wreckage of this crash on a walk to the summit of Meikle Bin in 2004, before I knew anything about it. It is one of the most accessible of all wreck sites in the Scottish hills, and is one of the sites most likely to be encountered by walkers, being very close to the main route to the popular summit of Meikle Bin close to the central urban areas of Scotland.

There are two large pieces of the aircraft remaining at the site, a section of wing and the engine. The two pieces lie about 200m apart on the western slope of Meikle Bin, not far from the summit at altitudes of about 550m and 500m respectively. The engine is next to a fir plantation and is not in as good a condition as the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine remains of the Fairy Firefly on Lochnagar (see my page about this site here).

This site lies about 3km north-west of the remains of a civilian Percival Prentice that crashed in the nearby Kilsyth Hills in 1961 (see my page about this site here).

There are some pictures of this site on the TFDACSS website here, the NBSAB website here (showing a section of fuselage that is no longer at the site) and the ACSS website here.

These pictures were taken in December 2009.

Update May 2011: I discovered another debris field approximately 500m from the well-known wreckage pieces of the Firefly, on the opposite side of Meikle Bin to the northeast, at an altitude of approximately 370m, hidden behind a small plantation of trees. There are five pieces of relatively substantial pieces of wreckage, with at least two seeming to come from parts of the wings of the Firefly. I believe these wreckage parts have not been recorded elsewhere in any books or websites.

These pictures were taken in May 2011.