RAF Gloster Javelin, Moorfoot Hills, crash date 21/11/60


[Picture from wikipedia.org]

OS 10-figure grid refs (GPS):

NT 29267 47471
NT 29353 47395
NT 29136 47445
NT 29092 47335
NT 29204 48907

Google Maps display showing wreckage locations

This wreckage is located at an altitude of between about 480m and 550m in the Moorfoot Hills, in two small gorges below the summits of Emly Bank and Bowbeat Hill. Despite being fairly close to Edinburgh, I believe this site is little visited or known about.

Some significant pieces of the aircraft remain but they are quite difficult to locate. One gorge has parts of what look like wing sections, with a wheel located further down. The most unusual remains are the two large Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire jet engines, in another gorge (and which went undiscovered by me on two previous trips to this site).

The ACSS website has some good information and photographs of the site here. The ACIA website used to have pictures of wreckage at two impact points at this site, but I have been unable to find any trace of these - it is possible that they have since been cleared when the nearby wind farm was constructed in recent years.

Update January 2013: At one time, the ACSS website suggesed that the Javelin jet engines at this site were removed in 2009. However, personal correspondence and photographs of the engines still on site from Mark Pringle informed me that this was not the case. However, it does appear that the nose landing gear and wheel section of the aircraft (1st and 2nd photos from June 2008 below) was removed by the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum in 2011.

Update August/November 2014: Personal correspondence from Gary Nelson has alerted me to another wreckage field of the crashed Javelin. This area is a substantial distance from the other wreckage, about 1.5km to the north, lying in a gully to the south-east of Jeffries Corse, at an altitude of about 470m (OS 10-figure grid ref. NT 29204 48907). The wreckage appears to consist of one of the Javelin's wingtips and some smaller pieces of metal (photos from July 2014 below). It's possible that the Javelin lost part of its wing here before crashing further south. Gary also sent me a photograph of what appears to be a component from one of the jet engines 'about 20yrds further upstream from the highest engine'. Many of Gary's photographs of the site (including a second wheel) can be seen on the ACSS website. I was unable to find any new pieces of wreckage on a visit to the site in November 2014, but I can confirm that both jet engines remain at the site.

These pictures were taken in May 2005.

These pictures were taken in June 2008.

These pictures were taken in March 2009.

These pictures were taken in July 2014.