RNAS Longside, Former airship station in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
RNAS Longside was a Royal Naval Air Service station in Aberdeenshire with three massive airship hangars about 100 feet high spread across a large compound roughly 3 miles south of Longside village. The facility contained barracks, storage areas, workshops, administration buildings, a swimming pool, shops, and a theater, all connected by railway for resupply operations.
Built in 1915 and operational from 1916 to 1920, the station served as a strategic base for North Sea maritime patrol operations during and after the First World War. This period marked an important chapter in British naval defense using airship technology.
Local people created a nickname for the airships stationed here by combining the area name with a Scottish dialect word for pig, showing how much these machines became part of daily conversation and village identity.
The site was remote but served by rail, making it accessible for visitors without long travel times from nearby towns. The grounds were spread out over a considerable area, so allow adequate time to walk between the different sections and building locations.
This was the northernmost airship station on mainland Britain and received more than 30,000 tons of coal delivered by rail during its years of operation. The sheer volume of fuel needed reveals how demanding it was to run such a large aerial facility in a remote location.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
