Commemorative plaques on display at Berriedale

THREE newly commissioned plaques, commemorating military air crashes in the area, were unveiled at Berriedale's Remembrance Sunday service.

Anson MacAuslan, factor at Langwell and Braemore Estate, explained that the plaques, commissioned by the Royal British Legion, will be put on cairns next year to mark the crash sites that are all in the Scaraben hills.

At present there is nothing in place at the locations of these three accidents, two of which occurred during World War II.

The first plaque is in memory of the six crew who died when the Whitley MkV aircraft, operating with 612 Squadron from RAF Wick, came down on May 1, 1941. They had taken off on an anti-U-boat patrol from Wick on April 30 and were returning in the early hours of the morning when their aircraft flew into the northern end of East Scaraben above the Berriedale Water.

Commemorated on the second plaque are the three personnel who died when an Avro Anson aircraft operating with 20 Operational Training Unit (OTU) RAF Lossiemouth crashed near the same site on August 18, 1942.

There were two survivors, who later died in active service, and the plaque states: "Let those who come after see to it their names are not forgotten."

The third memorial pays tribute to the two crew who were killed when a Canberra PR7 aircraft of 80 Squadron RAF Brüggen crashed on the slopes of Scaraben on February 2, 1966. The wreck was not discovered for two days.

Mr MacAuslan said: "We are going to build little cairns to put the plaques on."

He explained that there had been a number of crashes in the area and they were still trying to gather more information about a couple of them – one on the coast between Ousdale and Berriedale, and another one near Newport.

Perhaps the most well-known air accident in the area is the one involving the Sunderland flying boat which crashed into the hillside at Eagle's Rock, Braemore, on August 25, 1942, killing 14 passengers and crew, including Prince George, the Duke of Kent, an air commodore in the RAF.

The estate was approached by Wick man James More who asked if it would be possible to put memorials at the three crash sites.

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