Dalcross House is the second of seven new Single Living Accommodation Blocks (SLA) to be completed at
RAF Lossiemouth. Now officially open the first Junior Rank residents moved in on 27th September. The
block has been named as a nod to the historic Scottish airfield, RAF Dalcross.
The opening of Dalcross House comes as part of a large development project at RAF Lossiemouth, creating
a total of 426 modern en-suite bedrooms for service personnel. The new SLA blocks are anticipated to be
completed by early 2024.
All seven accommodation blocks have been named after historic RAF airfields. Newly opened Dalcross
House has been given the monika after RAF Dalcross which opened as a grass strip airfield in 1940.
RAF Dalcross became home to 2 Air Gunnery School of 13 Group Anti-Aircraft Cooperation Flight, 19 (Pilot)
Operational Training Unit, and 1 Flying Instructors School (19 Pilots Advanced Flying Unit (PAFU)).
On 5 December 1945, 13 Group Headquarters moved to RAF Dalcross along with their Communication
Flight. Shortly thereafter, on 3 January 1946, No 122 Squadron (a fighter-bomber Spitfire squadron)
relocated to RAF Dalcross from RAF Wick. The squadron was subsequently renumbered No 41 Sqn and, on
1 April 1946, assigned to RAF Wittering. The following month, 13 Group disbanded on 20 May. Despite
continued post war RAF presence, the airfield was placed under civilian control in 1947.
In May 1951, and as a consequence of the Korean War and growing Cold War tensions, No 8 Flying
Training School formed at Dalcross. The school used Airspeed Oxford aircraft for pilot training and, latterly,
the de Havilland Chipmunk; the unit disbanded in the winter of 1953. No 7 Gliding School, which formed at
Dalcross in 1946 and operated the Slingsby Cadet and Sedbergh gliders, disbanded a couple of years later
in 1955.
Finally, in 1953 the airfield was renamed Inverness Airport before RAF gliders again briefly returned in 1968
with No 662 Gliding School. Notwithstanding an extension to the main runway in 1974 to allow for larger
aircraft such as the Hawker Siddeley Trident, the airport layout still resembles the original 1940s airfield.
The remaining accommodation blocks to be built at RAF Lossiemouth - providing additional Junior Ranks,
Senior Non-Commissioned Officers, and Officers bedrooms - are named Dyce, Milltown, Peterhead,
Dallachy and Brackla. You can read more about the naming of Inverness House here.
