What is this at Evanton?

[ColinB]

Why is there such a large extension to the runway at the airfield which used to be USAF Evanton south of Invergordon? What is the extension for?

[Sospan]

It looks like a pipeline on Goggle Earth, for filling or emptying tankers perhaps.

[Bo Nalls]

The industrial area manufactures pipelines for the oil/gas industry and these are fed out to the pipelaying ships via the pier.

[Softie]

It's a deep water jetty called Highland Deephaven and used by the Technip/UMAX pipeline spooling facility.

[ColinB]

Does anyone know what the Americans were doing at Evanton in the 1950s?

[NUFC1892]

Does anyone know what the Americans were doing at Evanton in the 1950s

Making scottish ladies happy and scottish men unhappy, at a guess.

[Duckandcover]

Can't view graphic but the Americans built extensions at several airfields in preparation for the deployment of the B-36 Peacemaker that were never used.

I believe East Kirkby has such an extension and Molesworth also.

[sisemen]

Making scottish ladies happy and scottish men unhappy, at a guess.

As one had a duty to do when one was at Grantown on Spey with the recoursees.

(Them that did it will understand!)

[Rossian]

USAF Evanton...

...having lived in that area at the time, the scuttlebutt was that they were ginagerous WX ballons with atmospheric sondes underslung. Local rumour had it that as the balloons drifted off in a NE-ly direction that enterprising farmers on the North Sutor at the entrance to the firth would bring them down with shotgun fire before they got too high. Then, being socially minded citizens, claimed the bounty for returning a sonde. They also used the enormous acreages of polythene in early versions of the poly tunnels.

I think they were REEEEEly reely atmospheric sensors for detecting the aftermath of soviet nuclear tests. But what do I know?

(Oh and yes all the old jokes were there too - "Heard the joke about the Evanton Knickers?"
"Yes, one yank and they're down. Boom Boom"

The Ancient Mariner

[ColinB]

Can't view graphic but the Americans built extensions at several airfields in preparation for the deployment of the B-36 Peacemaker that were never used.

I understand that there is/was a factory manufacturing undersea oil pipes situated at the farthest inland point. The continuous pipe left the factory on rollers and was fed along the large extension into the sea where it was wound onto large drums aboard a cable-laying ship ready to be installed at sea. You could easily believe that it was a launch for U2s or whatever.
In the late 1950s I was living in Inverness and waiting for the results of some Foreign Office exams and was working on a bread van for Burnett's who delivered on a run through Bonar Bridge, Avoch, Cromarty, Muir of Ord, Invergordon out to Tain. One of our stops was USAF Evanton where we delivered a large order each working day. I warmly remember being invited to have Xmas lunch with them. There was Turkey, Xmas Pudding, crackers etc. all served on a metal food tray. The crowning glory was that it also had a King Edward cigar, which I kept for many months.
I often wondered what they were doing.
Weren't the balloon flights tied up with Operation Mogul? Hence a connection with Roswell.

[diginagain]

'Tis Technip's Evanton Spoolbase, where they make Coiled Tubing.

[Duckandcover]

Now that I've had a look at it on google maps I can see that's nothing like what I was on about...

[Shack37]

'Tis Technip's Evanton Spoolbase, where they make Coiled Tubing.

And steel pipelines a great deal wider too!

[Shell Management]

For more on the site see here
http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/ind...s.HMSFieldfare
There is a similar pipe base on the Forth too

For more on the balloon spy missions see here
Osprey Publishing - Military History Books - The Genetrix Balloons

Looks like the base was only briefly used by the US so all the fornication suggested is clearly in the mids of some contributors

[Rossian]

Oh yes there was...

...although the active mission was very short, the build up and the run down went on for quite a while; and there were a few chaps who as the old Highland phrase has it "got their feet under the kitchen table". I was into amateur radio building then and we watched in anguish as the staff drove a bulldozer over a large pile of components, ground them into the dirt and then burned them. They would have kept us in bits for a lifetime of kit.

In the rock'n roll of the time - yes "there was a whole lot of sha&^ng goin' on"

The Ancient mariner

[diginagain]

Can't say they did much for the gene-pool.

[Rossian]

Gene pool??...

...is that down near Camborne, or is it is the Snozzel claypits villages?

A remark like that from Cornwall definitely raises a smile on a dull Sunday morning.

The Ancient Mariner

[diginagain]

With my Yorkshire accent I stand a better chance of surviving an evening in Tyack's than in the Cally.