Scorton Walk – “Daisy’s Chain”
This is a trail around the beautiful wild lakes in the country park created over the past few years after the end of quarrying on the site. It is approximately a 3 mile walking loop round the park from either the North or South car parks that give direct access to the Walk. (Please don’t park in the village.) It is very popular with dog walkers and the occasional horse rider or cyclist.
It is an open, flat course with wide gravelled paths through designated landscaped wildlife areas. The site is attracting an increasing variety of bird species; some in big numbers – there were over 100 Whooper Swans on one of the lakes recently. There is a wildfowl observation point on one of the lakes. The site has interesting history as there is a memorial commemorating the RAF’s use during the Second World War and a stretch along an old railway line. Other public footpaths and bridleways join the site.
Cache 5 – RAF Scorton
RAF Scorton was a satellite station of RAF Catterick during the Second World War, used by the Royal Air Force, the Canadian Air Force and the United States Army Air Force Ninth Division. It was chosen for its flat terrain and proximity to the railway line linking the site to RAF Catterick. The RAF flew Spitfires from here, and the USAAF trained and flew ‘Mosquitoes’ chasing enemy night-flying V1 ‘buzz bombs’. The airfield operation closed in 1945 and the concreted areas were quarried for sand and gravel. Much of it is now under a lake, where the tranquility belies the previous horrors of war. BYOP