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Alness at War Alness Civic and Heritage Centre Alness Point Business Park Coastline Alness Point
County Community Hospital, Invergordon Ferry Point Ferry Point Map Ferrytown Pier Map Ferrytown Pier Slipway
Flying Boat Base Memorial Invergordon Museum Meikle Ferry Moorings Ness of Portnaculter Place Names
Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital Invergordon St Duthus Hotel Slipway Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre
Get directions to any of the places below by clicking its name and
when Maps opens click Directions and then select Your location
No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit was based at then Royal Air Force Station Alness from June 1941 to August 1946. It was from here that W6009 began its final flight.
The former RAF Station is now Alness Point Business Park, adjacent Scotland's A9 carriageway not too far from Tain and Inverness.
YOU CAN WALK ON THE SLIPWAY. Lock-up your car in the Business Park grounds and it is an easy ~330 yard walk over flat ground (yellow line) to the slipway and down to the beach. If, for some reason, that path is not possible on the day you are there, lock-up your car at the nearby lay-by off the A9 carriageway and walk to the slipway and beach over ~660 yards of gently undulating ground (orange line).
Coastline Alness Point
Slipway
Looking up from the beach (photographed in September 2019).
Moorings
These concrete and steel structures (photographed in September 2019) are WWII relics from when
RAF Station Alness operated as a Royal Air Force Coastal Command flying boat base.
They are within yards of the slipway and may have served as mooring posts for the flying boats.
This Memorial (dedicated on 16 October 2001 and photographed in September 2019) is on the grounds of Alness Point Business Park.
Read more about the Memorial and inscription here.
Meickle Ferry Map
John Fleming and I stood on the Northern lay-by in October 1996, as he showed me to the west,
near Ferrytown Pier, where he had seen the wreck of W6009 in the water in 1945.
Read more about the Ferry here.
Mid-afternoon 14 January 1945, looking south as in this photograph taken in September 2019,
you would have seen the burning wreck of W6009, perhaps a little to the west (right) or east.
Ferry Point
It was to this pier that, on the afternoon of 14 January 1945, Marine Tender No917 conveyed the six of Our Crew who were severely injured. They were initially treated here by the Meical Officer from RAF Station Tain and then transferred to R N A Hospital Invergordon.
The Heritage Centre has copies of their booklet 'Alness at War' available for sale at ~£10.
100+ pages of reminiscences about Alness and living at and flying from RAF Station Alness.
Mike, a volunteer at the centre, tells me the next re-print will include the W6009 story.
Place names
Reading about locations in some crash-related documents can be confusing.
Follow the links below for information about each place.
Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital Invergordon
Jim and Steve Leslie have written extensively about The Hospitals of Ross & Cromarty. I am grateful to them for placing a link to their Invergordon Hospital chapter on their website. Jim told me "... none of the original hospital ward huts remain ... However, Invergordon Museum is run by local history enthusiasts and has a lot of information on the old hospital and is well worth a visit. It is not open all the time and if a visit is a possibility for you then you should first check with them." Jim is right. I have found it difficult to contact the museum. If you are thinking about visiting, it would be wise to arrange a time.
County Community Hospital, Invergordon on the site of R N A H Invergordon
St Duthus Hotel, Tain
