Cults Farm
Note: This map only shows the position of Castle Kennedy within the UK. If anybody can provide a more exact position for the site used, this advice will be very welcome. Was it really the site of the later CASTLE KENNEDY WW2 airfield?
CULTS FARM: Temporary military airfield
Military user: RFC (Royal Flying Corps)
No.2 Squadron
Location: Earl of Stair’s estate, Castle Kennedy, 3nm ESE of Stranrear
Period of operation: August 1913
NOTES: Despite working on this ‘Guide’ for around twenty years by 2016, I have been forced to learn quite a bit about the nature of research. Mainly that much of the material available is patchy, or should I say selective and far from consistent. Along the way I have had to make hard decisions, then revise them as subsequent information came to light. This process of revision has been a constant pain in the backside, mostly regarding where to put the sites listed especially because our traditional County boundaries have been torn to shreds. In 2010 I discovered the traditional County boundaries still exist and stand today. The constant movement and creation of ‘new’ Counties being purely an administrative exercise for reasons that are often very questionable!
In this case I found entries listed under two different Counties, (and three separate headings), one of which was made up….GALLOWAY! No such County has existed. But, when starting out on this ‘Guide’ I trusted the authors to get the facts correct. In 2010 I made this remark. With a lot of work still to do I’ve become far more sceptical and do a hell of a lot of cross-reference and investigation – which takes a lot of time.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
In this case I have decided to give you my notes simply because I trust you might find them interesting to compare? Now merged into the original County, WIGTOWNSHIRE, which was extent when these events took place.
NOTE 1:
In mid-August 1913 it was decided to move No.2 Squadron from MONTROSE to RATHBONE CAMP in County Limerick using CULTS FARM as the staging post before attempting crossing the Irish Sea. It was an utter fiasco, but, little did they know that twenty seven years later, this site would become RAF CASTLE KENNEDY (Am I correct here?)
NOTE 2:
In mid-August 1913, not long after the Royal Flying Corps was formed, it is reported that No.2 Squadron flew their BE.2c’s plus one Maurice Farman from MONTROSE to RATHBANE CAMP (some say RATHBONE CAMP) in County Limerick via Stranraer. It would appear likely that a fair amount of organisation would have been required to set up this temporary base? Presumably the aircraft would have been thoroughly checked and fuelled prior to making this perilous crossing?
NOTE 3:
According to Flight published on the 6th September 1913: “R.F.C. Squadron Flies to Ireland”
“On Tuesday last week Capt. Dawes, on his Maurice Farman, set out from Montrose to fly to Ireland, and he was followed the next day by Capts. Longcroft, Tucker, and MacLean, an Lieut. Dawes all on B.E. machines. Capt. Dawes was detained for some time at Dysart by fog, but later reached Stranraer; while of the others, Capts. MacLean and Longcroft got through, but Capt. Tucker was brought down in Fifeshire, and had his machine smashed through running into a wall, and Lieut. Dawes, through a petrol pipe breaking, had to stay overnight in Inverkeithing. Bad weather detained the machines at Stranraer until Monday, when Capt. Becke and Lieut. Waldron arrived on B.E.s from Montrose. Capt. Dawes, Becke, and Longcroft, and Lieuts. Waldron and Dawes then set out on the trip across the sea to Ireland, but Capt. Longcroft had to go back for a slight adjustment to his machine. The others got across, and completed their journey to Rathbane, near Limerick, Capt. Dawes landing en route at Newcastle, County Down.
It seems well worthwhile giving this report in full because it certainly illustrates the trials and tribulations that such long distance flights, (for those days of course), held for the pilots. To fly such generally unreliable ‘machines’ across the Irish Sea would be regarded as utter foolishness today, bordering on suicidal. I suppose we need to remember that these pilots would have been seen as heroes, and the very bravest too. This was a truly pioneering flight of the first order for those days.
Julia MacDonald
This comment was written on: 2020-01-02 10:57:21I have photos...though old and not sharp of Capt Dawes at Cults Airfield speaking to Lady Stair and another labelled Dawes and Farman Longhorn also at the Cults. If you send me an email address I will send you digital copies. Also a photo of be2 if 2nd San rfc on flight to Newcastle co down that last it's way and landed at Holm Park, Creetown on 26th September 1913. Kind regards Julia
Dick Flute
This comment was written on: 2020-01-02 20:03:32Hi Julia, Many thanks for the kind offer, I will very much look forward to seeing these pictures which must surely be very rare. You will find my e-mail address on the homepage. Best regards, Dick
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