Northton Beach
Note: This map only gives the location of Northton within the UK. Presumably NORTHTON BEACH was to the north of the town - or was it? Any advice on this will be most welcome.
NORTHTON BEACH: Occassional Landing Ground
Operated by: 1930s: Scottish Airways 1945 to ? BEA
Location: In/near Northton, W of the A859, in the SW corner of the Isle of Harris
NOTES: The book Air Ambulance by Iain Hutchison has been invaluable for discovering so many landing grounds in Scotland, and here are two examples. “The Rapide continued faithfully in the service of BEA during the early days of the new corporation and, in its ambulance role, on 24th May 1948, it ventured as far west as Shannon, one of the rare international mercy flights.
During this period David Barclay was also occasionally flying Ted Freeson’s favourite Dragon, G-ACIT, using it to take Renfrew-based pilots on survey flights to Tiree, Islay, Mull, Colonsay, Oronsay, Coll, Benbecula, Sollas, and Northton (Harris) to familiarise them with regular and irregular landing sites in the Hebrides serving communities which might call on the air ambulance for assistance.”
He also gives this example from Capt. David Barclay’s log book for the 30th June 1948, this time flying a BEA Rapide. “Renfrew-Coll-Benbecula-Northton Beach-Kirkwall-Stronsay-Sanday-North Ronaldsway-Westray-Kirkwall-Aberdeen. 7 hours 23 minutes. Air ambulance landing fields experience for Capt. Appleby.”
These are the only two records I have discovered for NORTHTON BEACH. This said there remain a lot of landing grounds used occasionally by private pilots in the remoter parts of Scotland and I will much appreciate information on this subject as it certainly is an important aspect of our unique aviation heritage. Only a minimal of information is required, no name or pack-drill etc - just a simple entry such as: ‘Landed at xxxx and date will do.’ This said, obviously the more info the better.
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