Leuchars Station

Leuchars Station is a British Army installation located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland, near to the university town of St Andrews.

Formerly RAF Leuchars (IATA: A.D.X., ICAO: EGQL), it was the second most northerly air defence station in the United Kingdom (The most northerly being RAF Lossiemouth). The Station ceased to be an RAF Station at 1200 hrs on 31 March 2015 when control of the site was transferred to the Army.

History

First World War

Aviation at Leuchars dates back to 1911 with a balloon squadron of the Royal Engineers setting up a training camp in Tentsmuir Forest. They were soon joined in the skies by the 'string and sealing wax' aircraft of the embryonic Royal Flying Corps; such aircraft favoured the sands of St Andrews, where not the least of the attractions was the availability of fuel from local garages.

Like so many RAF stations, the airfield itself owes its existence to the stimulus of war, and work began on levelling the existing site on Reres Farm in 1916. From the beginning, Leuchars was intended as a training unit, being termed a 'Temporary Mobilisation Station' taking aircrew from initial flying training through to fleet co-operation work. Building was still underway when the Armistice was signed in 1918. Most was made of Leuchars' maritime location when it was designated a Naval Fleet Training School, eventually to undertake the training of 'naval spotting' crews who acted as eyes for the Royal Navy's capital ships.

Leuchars

Coordinates: 56°22′53″N 2°53′01″W / 56.3814°N 2.8835°W / 56.3814; -2.8835

Leuchars (pronounced ⁱ/ˈluːxərs/ or /ˈluːkərz/; Scottish Gaelic: Luachar "rushes") is a small town near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland.

History

The surrounding area was improved by drainage in the 18th century. In the 19th century, a railway station on the line from Edinburgh to Aberdeen brought increased prosperity to the town. When the St Andrews Railway branch line was closed in the late 1960s, Leuchars became the closest place to get the train to St Andrews. Since then, Leuchars railway station has been used by many University of St Andrews students.

The 12th century St Athernase Church is one of the finest surviving examples of an unaisled Romanesque parish church in Scotland, or indeed anywhere in Great Britain, with two levels of blind arcading in the Norman style running round the exterior, surmounted by a corbel table with heads of various designs. The interior has elaborate chancel and apse arches, and a series of powerful beast-heads on the corbels supporting the ribs of the internal vaults. The nave has unfortunately been rebuilt. The apse roof is crowned by a rather incongruous small bell-tower added in the 17th century.