THINK of planes landing near our city and your thoughts will immediately turn to Glasgow Airport.
But during the Second World War and its aftermath there were frequent flights in and out of an RAF base north of the city boundary.
RAF Bishopbriggs was a barrage balloon depot, No 18 Balloon Centre, and the site of a large accommodation camp.
It was set up in 1939 and was also used as a transit camp.
This picture is from 1957 and you can see two of the balloon hangars in the background, while the
plane on the left is a Spitfire MK XVI.
After the war, RAF Bishopbriggs was used by the Royal Military Police as a training school and then, in 1968, the site was converted into a temporary low security prison.
The original Low Moss Prison stayed in use until May 2007, when the buildings were demolished and the site cleared ready for a new prison to be built. That opened in March 2012.
Other parts of the RAF Bishopbriggs site have been used for a driver testing centre, a vehicle testing centre, and a golf range.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article