Approach Montrose from the South on the A92 by Rossie Island Road and you will pass on your right hand side, just before the bridge at the junction with Croft Road, the position of a WW2 machine gun post, removed recently and replaced by a wall on the corner. This is where the local Home Guard would have made their stand had the Panzers trundled along here towards the road bridge. Follow the new ring road and behind the Shell filling station is a wartime wooden building of the type widely used on aerodromes throughout Britain, probably bought at the end of the war and relocated as storage/workshops etc. Where the new road passes the Tesco car park a least one concrete bomb shelter was demolished during the roadworks, and opposite the Somerfield car park a brick built square pillbox/shelter was also demolished during the road widening (the large wooden sheds at the railway containing lime are engine sheds that date from the days of steam). Continue to follow the road towards the north, turning left at the roundabout along Medicine Well Drive, and between the metal pedestrian bridge over the railway and the roadbridge a hexagonal concrete pillbox was demolished here when the caravan site was landscaped. Follow the road round the roundabout here to the right and you will pass the old distillery/brewery which still has a wartime air raid siren mounted on the roof, and if you stop at the traffic lights before turning north onto the A92 you will see in the small grass area on the left a partially hidden concrete shelter from the last war. Follow the road over Victoria Bridge and the immediate turning on the right, Waldron Road, is the old entrance to the aerodrome.This road was named after the first pilot of No 2 Squadron to land at Montrose in 1913, Lt. Frederick F. 'Ferdy' Waldron, and now leads to the aerodrome museum, housed in the old RFC/RAF wooden Watch Office/HQ which dates from around 1915, with original WW2 pillbox adjacent.

On the immediate site of the old aerodrome, now an industrial estate, are the original aeroplane sheds which were built in 1913, based on an Indian Army design with wide doors for aircraft. Also on this site are metal T2 hangars from the RAF expansion period from 1936 to the start of hostilities in 1939, two have recently been converted into the Plasboard factory but its origins can still be seen, and the gap between it and the T2 hangar used by Gindera Motors is the result of the air raid in October 1940. Despite some recent factory units being built they resemble wartime construction and the site still has an air of the past about it.

Head south from the museum, passing on your left the site of the wartime morgue, a T2 hangar used by the Fleet Air Arm for Air Sea Rescue aircraft (Swordfish and Walrus) and on your right the 1913 sheds which follow the line of the old railway, the most southern one being reclad in original style by Angus Council. These sheds were used for the storage of military equipment and vehicles in the periods when RAF Montrose was not operational, latterly housing Civil Defence 'Green Goddess' fire engines of the Cold War period. Pass the aviation theme iron sculptures and turn left along Broomfield Road and you will pass on your left, after the cottages, a wartime fuel dump partly overgrown, and the large house, once an isolation hospital, was used as quarters during both world wars, with WAAFs in residence during WW2. On the right where the burgh yard and recycling unit are was the WW1 domestic site, the hut of the local model aero club here, an original wartime building, is a reminder of these days. Follow the road into the playing fields and you will arrive on the old aerodrome peri-track which circles the flying field. Concrete shelters can still be seen around the old perimiter fence, most landscaped in an attempt to hide them. On the north private half of the aerodrome wartime structures are still visible, shelters, pillboxes and firing butts for the aircraft. Although there is no law of trespass in Scotland, it is tolerated only if you do not do any damage to the land etc you are on. In the bents, across the golf course which is common land to the seaward side, is the second fighting control centre for airfield defence. The original, on the bridge which leads into the private land, was partly demolished recently as it was in an unsafe condition, which fate also befell the top of the control tower. On the north side of this bridge, now covered by rubble, was a small fuel dump, probably for vehicles, and a PR Spitfire is reputed to have crashed in this area, the force of its dive forcing it deep into the ground.

Returning to the bents area, some pillboxes have fallen down the face on to the beach, and there are still concrete 'dragons teeth' and other anti invasion structures from here north to the mouth of the river. Coastal erosion on the beach recently uncovered an unexploded German bomb, and a Heinkel He111 still lies at the bottom of the bay. The bents here also give a superb panorama of the town and old aerodrome, and on the north skyline inland of St Cyrus village a Chain Home Low radar blockhouse can be seen. A small arms firing range hides on the aerodrome side of the bents north of the golf course. On the land behind the bents to the north of the aerodrome proper is the site of a wartime listening post which continued in use during the Cold War, some buildings still existing behind a security fence. After the end of the Great War, manoeuvers with tanks and Bristol Fighters which kept in touch with each other by wireless telephony took place north of the airfield, so it could be said that the Blitzkreig was born here. Returning south through the aerodrome you will find countless remains of wartime structures, and barbed wire to watch out for. Light aircraft still use a grass strip here, and wire mesh reinforcing from the war can be found uncovered all over this area. With a bit of imagination you can think of the BE2 aircraft of No 2 Squadron clattering overhead powered by their Renault engines, the Avros and Sopwiths from the Great War, with their rotary engines blipping as they taxied out, or the roar of the next generation as Rolls Royce Kestrel powered Hart, Fury and Master aircraft plied their trade of training that generation of pilots, mixed with the whine of Merlins as the airfield defence Spitfires took off to pursue an intruder, oblivious to the needs of trainers or wind direction. Harvards which operated from Montrose's satellite airfields also came in for servicing, and operational squadrons had flights here throughout the war.

If you head south from the museum and continue following the line of the cycle track, on the old railway, you will come at the south of the town to the Glaxo factory complex. Here beside the Fire Station in Garrison Road, latterly the Marine Hotel, was the town's Barracks, scene of the first 'Montrose Ghost' sightings when it was used by the officers of the Royal Flying Corps. A cannon from the Barracks was unearthed during the reconstruction works and was displayed at the factory car park, but it has gone at the moment. Another ghost here was a Redcoat soldier who appeared in recent times in one of the council houses. Take the road out of town and turn left into Ferryden at the roundabout, heading for Scurdyness lighthouse, which is on the high road past the small jetty. A barrier goes across the road to stop vehicles, but you can walk or cycle along here. On the right you will find two brick built gun emplacements, and small pillboxes on the left (north) side. Below these down the face are other gun emplacements hewn into the rock, built during the last war by Polish sappers. On the opposite shore north of the factory complex two large gun emplacements have been demolished. Heading south on the coast road, the A92, to the right at the top of the brae (the bridge which had the stone that is now in the museum stood near the bottom of this brae) lies the first 1913 Air Station, behind the bungalow which was converted from the original watch office/guard room. On the left is Lunan Bay, site of the wartime bombing range, and the scene of Lt. Desmond Arthur's crash in 1913. The Museum's publications contain more gen and pictures on the history of RFC/RAF Montrose.