I am more than certain that the fort in post #23 is Jahili. I lived in it for a short while in '65 before moving into my own - un-airconditioned - house in Al Ayn village, and visited 2 -3 times a week thereafter (A/C, beer and cooling pool) ....... I have David Shepherds painting of Jahili (not original, more's the pity; limited edition print) on my wall.
The fort tower was/is capped by a single circular room, with a wide walkway round it reached by stairs on the outside of the next level down. The picture was taken from there, and the wall of the top room can be seen to the left.
The A Squadron sign was TOS A Squadron, and that's a TOS soldier beside it.
The TOS excuse for painting the whole thing white was that it made it easy to spot recent damage to the mud walls; ie when a piece fell off it as immediately obvious. That may be so, but then again the Army always paints immobile things white, which could be the real reason. Upkeep was the responsibility of the Min. of Works in Bahrain, who would appear from time to time in suits and porkpie hats.
There was no strip "near" to Jahili in my day; there was Al Ayn strip ("Bureimi Da'udi" to the RAF), the strip close to Bureimi itself, and, possibly a disused strip well to the South-West, and West-Southwest (ish) from Jebel Hafit on the route to Umm Az-Zammul which I recall hearing about but not seeing used.
Edit
The point about the white paint is that although I visited many forts in the Trucial Oman and the Sultanate, while living in the region from '65 - '80, I cannot remember a single one being painted white unless the British had been involved with it, eg the fort on the old Sharjah airfield. Forts were built essentially from what in Devon is called cob ie mud reinforced by vegetation, and were not painted; to the builders and occupiers this would have seemed rightly to be a pointless exercise.
Hmmm, afterthought;. the Ruler's Palace in Abu Dhabi, somewhat outside the town as I remember it, was a white fort, wasn't it, but if so that was an exception. Perhaps Sh. Shakhbout got the idea from the Min of Works.
I expect that there are more "exceptions" to shoot me down! Standing by......
Last edited by Capot; 3rd Apr 2009 at 08:54.