Black Panther takes the Scalp

[BlackPanther]

At the beginning, apologies for me being so late posting my August/September reports. This is the first of them; another six are yet to come, several of them including visits to plane crash sites. Hopefully I will find time to write them all up. I'm so overloaded with unsorted photos that my PC is constantly going on strike

The Scalp is a little known small hill in the eastern Moray, close to the county border with Aberdeenshire. Technically it is a TUMP but doesn't feature on any other lists which means it is rarely visited by mountain baggers. For those interested in picturesque ruins, it can be combined with a visit to Auchindoun Castle (highly recommended - a great ruin, free of charge!). For us though, there was another reason to visit, or should I say take the Scalp - yes, another plane crash site!

Auchindoun Castle - photo taken in 2009

We had visited the castle in the past so this time we decided to tackle the hill from the north-eastern side. Some of the tracks/paths marked on 1-25k map don't exist any more but the going isn't too bad; some scratchy heather en route but nothing a pair of determined wreck hunters couldn't handle.

Track_THE SCALP 12KM.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

There's a large layby at NJ391401; we crossed the road and took a boggy track across a fenced-off area, planted scarcerly with pines:

Black Arrow in the layby

Soon it turned out there was no gate at the opposite end of the enclosure so we had to climb the fence, not high but barb-wired - be careful not to tear your precious pants!
Our target hill was to our right:

The Scalp from Tips of Corsemaul

We hiked across Tips of Corsemaul, hopping over heather, eventually we found a sheep path which took us to a small quarry:

From the quarry, we followed a good track south:

The track ends by the ruined croft of Newtown of Glenmarkie:

Des res

Our map showed a track going south-west from the ruins and climbing the Mart Hill slopes to the summit of the Scalp. This track is NO MORE:

Grass, grass, grass everywhere!

Looking back to the ruined croft. Such a shame. The buildings are now dilapidated, but could still be saved; the location is lovely, the access not so much

The now non-existing track must have passed by a small tree plantation. Today, this plantation, just like the access road, is no more:

We spied a faint path which took us across Muckle Allt Venney. Later, it was more heather hopping (and sneezing from pollen inhalation!).

Kevin found a path (sort of)

I love flowering heather but I wish it was a bit less... nose-upsetting!

A bird of prey (buzzard probably?)

View east from the slopes of the Scalp:

Another ruined croft (Glenmarkie):

Eventually, after 200m of fighting scratchy heather, we emerged on the summit ridge, where we found a good estate track. The crash site was nearby, according to our GPS, but we decided to go to the summit first.
If anything, the Scalp is a good viewpoint to other Moray and Aberdeenshire hills:

Me, Lucy, trig point and Ben Rinnes

Auchindoun Castle from the summit of The Scalp:

Typical rural Moray/Aberdeenshire view:

Coryhabbie/Cooks Cairn group was mostly covered in cloud:

The crash site is located about 200m south from the trig point, on the SW side of the hill but very close to the main track:

This particular site is not very well known to baggers and wreck hunters, although it is described in "Aircraft wrecks...". Te plane was a Hawker Hunter fighter jet and the accident happened in 1980. Obviously, there is very little left of the plane itself, just a lot of small parts, but the scar is well visible:

We spent about 20 minutes walking carefully over the scarred area, finding quite a few small fragments of the Hawker, sadly everything was smashed to pieces. I guess all the bigger pieces of wreckage have been collected straight after the crash.

The accident happened on 28th of May 1980. A Hawker Hunter F.G.A. Mk.9, number XG261 from No.2 TWU RAF Lossiemouth was taking part in combat manoeuvring practice with another Hunter. Towards the end of the first engagement the Hunters pulled up into a wing over, both aircraft reaching 25,000ft. During the descend, the pilot noticed that his speed was low and increased power to accelerate in a dive towards the second jet. But the flaps have been previously selected to an intermediate setting to improve low-speed handling. As a result, the aircraft pitched nose down. The pilot didn't realize that the flaps were the problem; as the Hawker could not be recovered from the diving position, he decided to eject at 11,000ft. The jet just crashed into the hill top.
The Hawker Hunters were a popular type of small fighter jet, produced from 1953, so in the early 1980-ties it was an already old yet still usable design. They were mostly used for bomber and reconnaissance roles. Personally, I find the Hunter very graceful-looking plane

A cockpit from Hawker Hunter in Morayvia Aviation Museum

What's left of the crashed Hunter on the Scalp:

We still took nearly 300 photos, I picked only a few examples.

The small parts ale scattered all over the impact zone and I bet they must have been moved already by weather, so we didn't see any issue with carefully lifting some of the debris for better photos. Every part was of course put back where it had been and we took nothing home with us - apart from the pictures.

To return to the starting point, we followed the estate track over Hill of Mackalea, past a line of grouse butts. This track eventually joins the one we used to access Newtown of Glenmarkie:

On the way down, Tips of Corsemaul in front of us

It is possible to turn left and follow the track back to the A 920, but we didn't fancy walking along the busy road so we retraced our steps over Tips of Corsemaul. It required some heather-bashing and bog-hopping but we are used to such blessings of the Scottish countryside

Kevin returning home after taking the Scalp

As a post-scriptum for any Walkhighlanders interested in aviation. I would like to recommend a visit to Morayvia Aviation Museum in Kinloss (https://www.morayvia.org.uk/). They are a small organization dedicated to preserve old planes, plane parts and all kind of aviation paraphernalia. The museum is opened on Saturdays and Sundays, no need to pree-book, ticket prices are reasonable for the amount of stuff they have on display. The staff are fantastic, very friendly and helpful, we spent hours wandering around, taking gazillions of photos. There are some restrictions due to COVID (sadly we couldn't sit inside the cockpits, face masks are compulsory inside the building) but we still had lots of fun. Really a must-go for kids, but also for adults!

Sources for the Hawker Hunter crash:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/94291
http://www.wtdwhd.co.uk/CC20/BenRinnes.html
Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker's Guide: Historic Crash Sites on the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles. (2009)
by Nick Wotherspoon, Alan Clark and Mark Sheldon