Qualla: Fairy Lochs

Fairy Lochs: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeremy Wicks, CC BY-SA 2.0. A propeller still rises from the water of one of these little freshwater lochans, two miles south-east of Badachro in Wester Ross. Pieces of fuselage lie scattered in the surrounding bog. On 13 June 1945, five weeks after VE Day, a USAAF B-24 Liberator carrying fifteen men, nine crew and six passengers, crashed into the hill above the lochs and broke apart against the rocks before sliding into the water. The wreckage was never cleared. The Scottish Office designated the site a war grave. Now the families come, and walkers from Badachro come, and the wreckage stays exactly where it fell.

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Image: Jeremy Wicks | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fairy Lochs: Na Lochan Sgeireach

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Dorrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Gaelic name, Na Lochan Sgeireach, simply means 'the rocky lochans,' a small chain of freshwater pools strung across the slopes south-east of Badachro. The modern English name comes from the nearby hill Sìthean Mòr, the Big Fairy Mound, sìth being the Gaelic word for the other...

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Image: Richard Dorrell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fairy Lochs: 13 June 1945

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paypwip, CC BY-SA 4.0. B-24H Liberator serial 42-95095 lifted off from Prestwick on the morning of 13 June 1945, bound first for Keflavík in Iceland, then onward to the United States. The war in Europe was over. The crew belonged to the 66th Bombardment Squadron and were flying home; the six passengers...

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Image: Paypwip | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fairy Lochs: The Names

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The plaque on the rock above the largest piece of wreckage lists every man who died: pilots, navigator, radio operator, gunners, the six passengers from Air Transport Command. It was put there by families and friends, not by any government, in the years after the war. They were y...

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Image: Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fairy Lochs: A War Grave on the Moor

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. The site is now classified by the British government as a war grave, and visitors are asked not to disturb the wreckage. The propeller and one engine remain visible in the lochan. Twisted aluminium lies among the heather. A small footpath leads in from the road at Shieldaig, clim...

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Image: David Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0