Wednesday 26 February 2014

The Hunt For 'Q Site' !

What is a 'Q Site' ?
 Well during WWII & as far as the mighty Luftwaffe were concerned, there were 2 operational airfields ( Macmerry & Drem ) also the training airfield at East Fortune which were all high on the list of military targets that East Lothian had to offer. The RAF anticipated attacks & measures were taken to decoy German bombers into harmlessly attacking surrogate airfields rather than the real thing.

Two types of decoy airfields were created: K Sites which mimicked airfields in daylight & Q Sites which did the same at night. No K Sites were built in East Lothian but 2 Q Sites were. Both were built to bemuse bombers attempting an attack. The 1st Q Site built above Whitekirk & running west to east in the same direction as the runways at Drem & the 2nd built at Halls Farm at the edge of the Lammermuir hills which is the one that went to search for.

Whitekirk Q Site.
In 1940 a Q Site was established to the north of Whitekirk, it ran from Pefferside in the east to Redside in the west & it proved successful. The Whitekirk Q Site included;
-22:35 on 13/July/1940, 2 H.E. bombs dropped in a field at Redside Farm.
-01:00 on 27/July/1940, 4 H.E. dropped in a hayfield at Stonelaws.
-01:00 on 4/August/1940, 1 H.E. bomb dropped on Seacliff Gardens.
It is possible that a further 8 bombs dropped at Stonelaws. Waughton & Newbyth Mains on the evening of 2/October/1941 & were aimed at the Whitekirk Q Site.

Halls Farm Q Site.
It was realised that the Whitekirk Q Site was situated too close to Whitekirk & for safety it was moved to a more isolated location on the foothills of the Lammermuirs. This Q Site was established on the Halls Farm & it too was successful in it's role. The operations & generator room which doubled as a bomb shelter & is all that remains today & this is what I went in search of. The Halls Farm Q Site which was also known as the Black Loch Q Site due to it's proximity to the Black Loch on the Halls Farm land. As I mentioned above this Q Site was equally successful in attracting bombs.
-25/August/1940, 7 H.E. bombs fell on a field belonging to the nearby Brunt Farm.
-25/August/1940, on the same morning 10 H.E. bombs fell on a field belonging to Woodhall Farm near Innerwick.
-2/September/1941, 1 bomb fell in a field a mile east of the Halls & another a half mile south of the Black Loch.

So to explain how a Q Site worked in the hours of darkness, it's purpose was to copy an airfield's lighting system for runways etc. Quite early on in the war a revolutionary lighting system had been developed at Drem by Wing Commander Richard Atcherely, when he discovered the great difficulty Hurricane & Spitfire pilots had when coming into land at night. The flare from the exhausts made it difficult to see ahead. His system named the 'Drem system' was employed on eighty bomber & twenty fighter stations by the end of 1941. Anyway enough of the history lessons this is meant to be a blog about my mountain biking travels so let's get on with the photos of the journey...


So heading off from Innerwick, I head for the hills for two reasons the first to pick up a Herring Road geocache that I missed out on when me & a work mate cycled the route last year & secondly I needed to gain elevation for reasons I will mention later in this post. Also a welcoming sight that spring is on it's way with the snowdrops & aconites smiling in the sunshine on a cold fresh windy day.

Climbing higher & higher up the pylon & wind turbine maintenance road then cutting off onto the old farm track to towards the ruin of Boonslie.

Just before arriving at the ruin I knew I had to cut across the moor to link up with the Herring Road, which turned out to be a bit of a struggle with the bike on my shoulders fighting against the strong southerly wind & ankle deep in wet bog land, but it's all part of the fun.

Now at the Herring Road looking downhill & the reason that I need to be of a lofty elevation is because the area location of the Q Site bunker was vague in it's whereabouts & I needed to be up high to figure out the lay of the land & try & see where a flattish spot would be for a decoy airfield as all the evidence that I had to go on was one photo from the bunker looking in an south easterly direction with a view of Blackcastle tower & the smaller tower next to it on the right, the trees around & pylons. And the literature that I read said that it's location was nestled on the Herring road, near the Chesters hill fort, near the Black Loch & that it was south east of the Halls farm, all of these locations cover a huge area & this is why I had to climb up into the hills for a better view. So scanning the landscape like a hawk I was able to eliminate or confirm the areas that I thought it could be as I had the maps out in the house trying to guess where it could be, but nothing compares to a real time view. So off I went to where I hoped it would be.




Admiring the braw colours of my surroundings after collecting the Herring Road geocache then heading downhill where the ground was saturated like a sponge with all the rain recently where I had an over the handle bar moment after my front wheel sinking into the saturated ground just a wee bit too deep !

Off the hill & a heading towards the Halls Farm so now nearly at where I hope the Q Site will be.

After speaking to the farmer at the farm he told me where the exact  location was, I was almost right in my guess just on the opposite end of the field so I reckon I would of found it anyway.
The yellow flowers starting to appear on the gorse bushes & the western side of the Black Loch which extends around the corner of the hill.
Standing at the location where I thought the Q Site would be & there it is on the far side of the ploughed field, left of centre the little grass mound so I wasn't too far off target.

(Top)- This is the photograph that I had to go by to trace this location, a familiar view for me as the hill in the background is Blackcastle hill.
(Bottom)- My picture of the same view.




The surface remains of the structure.



The interior of the operations room / bomb shelter.



And the interior of the small annex room which contained the generator used to power the lights.
The entrance / exit to the structure.

The (Top) picture looking east & the (Bottom) looking west to which one of the fields would have contained the lighting system but which field I don't know.
The diagram above illustrates the Drem lighting system which was re-created here at Halls Farm Q Site.

The two Q Sites in East Lothian both drew the attention of the Luftwaffe & were bombed, so you could say that they were both successful in their roles. Drem was not to escape & was targeted at least 3 times;
-1/November/1940, 4 H.E. bombs dropped on Fentonbarns Farm with Drem the likely target.
-6/May/1941, 3 H.E. bombs dropped between West Fenton & Gullane near the west end of Drem aerodrome.
-12/August/1942, 4 H.E. bombs were dropped within the airfield which caused slight damage to farm property.

So a question I cannot explain if the Q Sites were successful then why did they not build the daytime K Sites ? Surely this would have deviated the attacks on Drem during the hours of daylight ! Who knows !


A couple of shots on the way back home from around the Brunt area & a lucky pheasant that for this season has escaped the shoots, home now for a quick bit of dinner then it's of to work for backshift.
So I hope you enjoyed the history lesson, I was amazed at how the Q Site structure was in perfect condition considering that it was built 70 years ago & the only reason there was water on the floor is because there are not doors to protect it from the elements, I'm glad that I went on this little field trip to search & find this interesting location amazing what is on your doorstep !

Thanks for looking & come back again soon for another East Lothian mountain biking adventure, cheers for now.

Sunday 16 February 2014

Sunshine After The Rain.

The U.K. has been absolutely battered by the worst Atlantic storms in years with southern England & Wales taking the brunt of the weather with severe flooding & 100 mph+ winds causing millions of pounds in damage & misery to the people affected, the mountainous north of Scotland has had record levels of snowfall & us down in the south east of Scotland have had rain albeit a bit more than normal so really we have been quite lucky.

Today's plan was to cycle up past the farm of Woodhall then cut onto the Woodhall Dean walking route, the start of this walk is never used & is pretty much unknown about, I only know about it as it's on the road to my old house at Weatherly, then to head down into Dunbar as I wanted to get some photos of a huge Swedish tug called 'Tor Viking II' that has been anchored really close to shore just off Dunbar...

...Time for some pictures...
After passing the farm & cottages of Woodhall climbing a short steep hill towards Weatherly stopping to look along the field where at the other end is the Woodhall Dean route.

Along the edge of the oak wood & the winter pond which dries up during the summer months.

The non existent pathway which follows the fence.



Following the fence line & I'd forgot how nice this walk is, when I lived up the road at Weatherly I walked this way all the time with my dog & the great thing about this way is that it's so secluded that you always come across wildlife from roe deer, squirrel's, foxes, buzzards & I remember one time I saw a badger down the hill foraging in the bracken, but today it was 4 roe deer on the far side bank but my wildlife photography skills are terrible !

Out of grassy field into what's left of an old turnip field that the sheep have had a good time eating.

 Over the fence & onto an old days road which linked up the farms of Woodhall to the now disapeared East & West Heartside & then to the Halls farm & beyond. The photo's above the top one looking east to Woodhall & the bottom looking westwards to East Heartside which no longer exists.


Crossing the old bridge & linking up onto the Woodhall Dean walking route. I have been told by various locals that this bridge is Roman but I can't find any literature to prove this but personally I don't think it is, I think the old farm roads had to cross the Weatherly burn so they built a bridge simple as that ! But I could be wrong !!

After emerging from Woodhall Dean I decided to climb up to the top of the Brunt Hill to get a high altitude photo of the 'Tor Viking II' Swedish tug & to my disappointment it had gone !!! Just my luck it's been anchored there all week & the day I want to take a photo it' gone !
Anyway it was a fine chance to try out my new camera's zoom capability with a zoomed in shot of the Bass rock & below Dunbar's parish church with the Isle of May in the background.




An old forgotten cottage at the bottom of Doon Hill, the fireplace & pig sty are still holding on but only just as the ash tree is breaking the pig sty apart & the chimney wall has had a few of it's stones deliberately kicked out ! I don't know why people feel the need to do things like this, idiots is all I can say.




Normally it's just a trickle of water that flows through these pipes but with all the rain that we've had there's a bit more than usual, in fact the water often floods this whole area covering the road above the pipes.
Also came across this dead Grey Heron, I had a look at it & couldn't see any visible wounds on it, so have no idea why it died ?



Finally a wee ride along the coast passing by Whitesands & Barns Ness before heading inland back home to Innerwick, hopefully this is the weather starting to settle & hopefully many more bright blue fresh days like this to come. Oh & before I go here is a picture of the 'Tor Viking II' courtesy of google.

Thanks for visiting & please come back for another tour of Scotland's south east scenery.