The first walk of the season for the Crash-site Recovery & Archaeology Group (CRAG) from Montrose Aerodrome Museum took place on Sunday, April 19, when a small party set off from Glenprosen Lodge (Angus) to find the wreck of a Hurricane fighter from 56 OTU at RAF Tealing, which crashed on April 21, 1943. The aircraft was on a cross-country flight which possibly included RAF Montrose. This was a short walk of some ten miles in total, and with the clouds still on the hill tops the intrepid members set off up the glen, a low level walk made more interesting with the appearance of the local wildlife which included Buzzards, Peregrines, maybe even a Golden Eagle in the distance, Kestrels and a flight of Capercaillie which burst out of a conifer wood like a squadron of B-17s, to quickly turn round and return there. From the Kilbo ruin to White Glen, now off the Land Rover track, the going became more boggy, and the cliffs where the crash site was could be seen with snow patches round about. Although the sun was threatening to come out, the wind was cold when stopping, so progress was kept up to the base of the cliffs. Leaving our packs behind we scrambled up a narrow and soggy path to the ledge where most of the wreckage now lies. There was plenty of snow cover here, but items from the wreck could still be found. We did not linger long here as the wind was cold and the snow made searching difficult, and scrambling down we were glad to get the sandwiches and coffee out. On the return nothing more exciting than sheep were encountered, although some more Buzzards appeared near the Lodge. However we had a good day, and the next walk is being planned, and I will be there, despite all the blisters. Easy walk indeed!

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Small pieces of the aircraft can be found, but there may be more higher up the cliff face. Any attempt to get there was discounted in the prevailing conditions. All we recovered were photographs, remembering the rule, 'leave only footprints, take only photographs'.

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