- Location: 8 Abbotsinch Rd, Grangemouth, FK3 9UR
- Opening times: 24 hours
- Entry: Free
- Access: On street parking, no charge.
RAF Grangemouth opened as Central Scotland Airport in May 1939 and briefly served as a civil airport before World War II broke out four months later. As RAF Grangemouth, it served as the home of 602 Squadron (Sqn) Spitfires, 141 Sqn Blenheims and Gladiators, and 263 Sqn Hurricane, and 614 Sqn Lysanders. On 16 October 1939, Spitfires saw their first ever combat action when pilots from 602 and 603 Sqns shot down two German bombers over the Firth of Forth. The airfield was also used as a training base for Spitfire pilots, and continued as a flying school before closing in 1955.
The airfield is long gone, and an industrial estate, a shopping centre, and a residential area now occupies the site; to drive down the town’s Inchyra Road is to drive down one of the airfield’s runways. The site’s former role was never forgotten, however, and in 2008 a memorial garden was opened in the memory of the 71 WW2 pilots from RAF Grangemouth that died during training. They came from all over the world – Poland, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom – to combat the Nazi scourge, and many are buried far from home in Grandsable Cemetery, just south of the airfield’s old boundary. In May 2013, a full-size Spitfire Mk I was added to the garden. This is a replica of Spitfire X4859, the aircraft Polish pilot Sergeant Pilot Eugeniusz Lukomski was flying in November 1941 when he crashed during a formation flying exercise.
The Spitfire is the undoubted star of the show, but the whole memorial is poignant and well designed. The Spitfire is raised as if in flight, and sits above a distorted version of an RAF roundel. Adjacent to this is a large correctly proportioned roundel, bordered on the Abbotsinch Road-side with a series of metallic information signs giving the history of RAF Grangemouth. On the opposite of this roundel from the Spitfire is a brick and black marble monument recording the names and nationalities of the 71 pilots who died. The site is well maintained and free from vandalism, and my cap is doffed to the people of Grangemouth for making this memorial reality.
Destination or Diversion?
The Spitfire Memorial Garden is no more than a diversion, but one well worth stopping at if in the area.
