The water mattered more than the runway. When the Royal Air Force established its station on the south shore of the Cromarty Firth, the point was not concrete strips but the sheltered surface of the firth itself, on which Catalina amphibians and Sunderland flying boats could land and take off in almost any weather. For most of its life the base trained the crews of Coastal Command, the unglamorous, dangerous arm of the wartime RAF that hunted U-boats across the North Atlantic and brought home thousands of merchant convoys.
The station opened as RAF Invergordon, taking its name from the nearby naval port on the same firth. The Royal Navy already had a major fleet base at Invergordon, and putting an RAF flying-boat station next door made sense for cooperation between services. On 10 February 1943, in the middle of the war, the station was renamed RAF Alness - probably to reduce confusion with the naval establishment - and that is the name it carried until closure. The site sits 1.1 miles southwest of Alness and roughly 14 miles north of Inverness, on the north side of the firth. The water was deep enough, the wind generally onshore from the east, and the surrounding country flat enough to allow approaches that a heavily-laden flying boat could safely manage.
Through the Second World War a remarkable list of units passed through the station. Squadrons 201, 209, 210, 228, and 240 RAF were based here at various times, all flying-boat operators tasked with long-range maritime patrol. The Flying Boat Development Flight had been here as early as July 1924. From June 1941 until August 1946, No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit ran the lengthy and demanding business of training crews on Sunderlands and Catalinas. The Sunderland was a four-engined British flying boat, big and well-armed - German pilots nicknamed it the Flying Porcupine for the array of guns. The Catalina was an American twin-engined design, slower but with extraordinary range, capable of staying airborne for up to twenty-four hours. The crews trained at Alness flew their finished aircraft south or west to operational squadrons that hunted U-boats from Iceland to the Bay of Biscay.
Alongside the operational training, the station hosted a constellation of specialised units that kept the flying-boat fleet running. No. 5 Flying Boat Servicing Unit handled major maintenance from November 1942 until 1945. No. 6 Air/Sea Rescue Marine Craft Unit and No. 1100 Marine Craft Unit operated the high-speed launches and rescue boats that recovered downed crews from the firth and the North Sea. A Seaplane Training Squadron ran from September 1939 until March 1941 before being absorbed into the larger 4 OTU. From July to October 1945 a detachment of the Coastal Command Flying Instructors School worked from Alness, training the trainers. After the European war ended, No. 302 Ferry Training Unit operated from July 1945 to April 1946, preparing crews for the long ferry flights that moved aircraft around the post-war RAF. Each unit was small. Together they made the base hum.
The flying-boat era ended faster than anyone in 1945 might have predicted. Land-based maritime patrol aircraft with longer range and easier maintenance took over the Coastal Command role, and the great flying boats that had bridged the Atlantic during the war were scrapped or retired within a decade. RAF Alness closed eventually; the squadrons moved on or stood down. The site is now Alness Point Business Park, on the eastern edge of the modern town. Walk through it today and you will find industrial units, light manufacturing, the kind of small businesses that occupy most former military sites in the modern Highlands. A propeller from one of the wartime Catalinas, found and restored by RAF apprentices, resides now in Alness itself, and tennis courts at the industrial estate are the only physical structures that survive from the wartime base. The men who trained here and did not come back are remembered on a memorial that was placed at the estate in 2001.
Located at 57.68 N, 4.26 W on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth, southwest of modern Alness. Inverness Airport (EGPE) is roughly 14 nm south-southwest, the nearest active ICAO field. The Cromarty Firth itself is an obvious linear water feature still used by visiting Royal Navy vessels and oil-rig support traffic, and the former base site is recognizable as the Alness Point Business Park on its eastern shore. Ben Wyvis (1,046 m) rises to the southwest. Best viewing 1,500-3,000 ft AGL to take in the firth, the business park layout, and the Fyrish Monument hilltop landmark to the northwest. Watch for haar (sea fog) off the North Sea, particularly in spring.