15 July 2009: Balado Airfield, Kinross

Since 1997, ‘T in the Park’, has been held on the site of Balado Bridge Airfield in Kinross.

Balado Bridge was constructed and opened in March 1942 as a satellite airfield to Grangemouth – it was hoped that its better weather record would allow for increased flying training hours.  Number 58 Operation Training Unit – which trained pilots in advanced aerial combat – was based at the airfield.

At the end of the Second World War it became an aeroplane graveyard when McDonnell Aircraft of nearby Milnathort broke up hundreds of surplus aircraft. The work reached its peak in 1946 and 1947, but even as late as 1952 many airframes in various stages of dismemberment could be seen littering Balado.  During the Cold War, the airfield was used as a radio station, with aerials located inside an iconic ‘golf-ball’ structure.

Balado is now the venue for the largest live music festival in Scotland. This week RCAHMS Aerial Survey team photographed the site immediately after the festival had ended.