Mealabost
Note: This map only gives a rough idea of where Captain Freeson landed. What is really unusual is how this place should be spelt? My road map says MEALABOST but, as you can see, Google Maps say MELBOST.
Place names often change their spelling over many years, usually decades, but I think I am correct in saying that this is the only example I have come across with alternative spellings in the same time span.
MEALABOST: Temporary landing site (aka MELBOST)
Location: On the golf course in/near Mealabost, roughly 2 to 3nm SE of Stornoway town, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. About a mile or so east of the present STORNOWAY airport.
Period of operation: 9th February 1937. Presumably at the same site (?) landings at Stornoway on the 30th June 1937 and 21st August 1943 (Taken from Capt Freeson’s log book)
NOTES: Iain Hutchinson tells of Captain Freeson piloting one of his Highland Airways aircraft, the Dragon G-ACIT to Stornaway, “…landing on the Melbost golf course.” He tells how Freeson tried very hard to persuade the authorities on the Isle of Lewis to establish an airfield/airport both for the convenience of passenger flights but also an air ambulance service. It appears they resisted this until the closing stages in WW2, when regular passenger flights commenced.
This was an unusual response to say the least? Elsewhere in less remote by still difficult to reach regions in Scotland, the arrival of an Air Ambulance service especially was greeted with much enthusiasm.
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