RNAS Longside RNAS " Longside " is a former Royal Naval Air Service airship station located south of Longside , Aberdeenshire and north of Hatton , Aberdeenshire , Scotland . It was constructed in 1915 and was operational from 1916 until 1920 when the extensive buildings were demolished . It is sometimes referred to as RNAS Lenabo particularly by locals who termed the airships ' Lenobo Soo ' a reference to the name of the area combined with the local dialect for a pig . It was the most northerly air ship station in mainland Britain . The air ships also used a small mooring site near Montrose in bad weather . The remit was to patrol the shipping lanes in the North Sea and the north east coast . Since the airship station was decommissioned , it has been used as a forestry plantation and there is little indication of its former use . History . The land at Lenabo was a large piece of bog land and when it was decided to commission it to be used as the most northerly British air base station before any building could start , the land had to be cleared . The meaning of Lenabo is taken from the Gaelic ' Lannam bo ' that means ' wet meadow of the cows ' and was an apt description of the land . The excavations were carried out by thousands of Irish and Scottish labourers drafted into the area . A large amount of peat was removed from the 950 acre site using basic equipment such as steam scoops and bucket cranes . The buildings on the site were extensive and included three airship sheds that were high and could be seen on the horizon for miles as the land was flat . There were also two high chimneys as well as stores , workshops and administration areas together with barracks . Unlike most sites constructed for use during the war , which were of an easily removed nature , the buildings at the base were built to last and were heavy concrete and brickwork . The main entrance had two concrete pillars adorned with elaborate globes mounted at the top . Four airships could be accommodated in the biggest shed while one or two could be housed in the smaller hangars . There were 1500 personnel based at the station and the facilities included a swimming pool , shops , a theatre and Church . There was also a gas works within the site . The arrival by rail of two deflated airships in 1916 signified the base becoming operational . There was an extensive community stationed at the base and it is referred to in the book " Longside : a parish and its people " as a township . A magazine titled " The Battlebag " was regularly produced and distributed at the base . There was a railway line operated by the Great North of Scotland Railway , which ran from Longside to the base . The spur was solely used to service the air station and was operational from late 1916 . A local landowner was paid £2 , 500 to compensate for the use of the part of his land the railway line ran through although the land was returned to him when the base was closed . In 1920 the first fatal car accident in Buchan occurred when a train on the rail line to the base hit a car . The three large airship hangars at the base had massive doors ranging from high with a width of through to by and these doors were on rollers to ease opening and closing them . According to Hughes , the common Royal Air Force term ' Two six heave ' was first coined by personnel trying to open the doors . Operations . The commander was Lieutenant Commander Robinson and his second in command was Squadron Commander Moyes . The site was used by the NS class blimp s N . S . 3 , 4 , 6 , 11 and 12 . In June 1918 an airship was damaged over the Firth of Forth and five crew members were lost . The following month another airship and crew was lost in the North Sea . A wooden propeller was eventually found and is kept in St John ' s Church , Longside as a memorial to the lost crew . There were strong gales at the end of September 1918 causing difficulties landing the airships returning to the base . The extreme conditions resulted in four of the airships having to be ' ripped ' once they had been maneuvered into the shelter of the hangars . Ripped is the term used when the rip cord attached to the control car is deliberately pulled to deflate panels sited on the airships . The airships ripped included a C 10A and a SSZ 65 . During the coal strike of 1919 , airmen from the base used their trucks to carry mail . As the war drew to a close , there were 12 airships at the base . Locals called the airships " Lenobo Soo " . ' Soo ' is the local derivative for a sow or pig . The base was very quickly closed by the Air Ministry in 1920 and it was purchased by demolition companies for a nominal amount . The majority of the buildings were eventually demolished . Ancillary site . A smaller site at Auldbar , near Montrose was utilised to moor the airships if they were unable to return to the main base station in bad weather . Situated south of Lenabo , it was the only mooring station in Scotland . Four bases for the airships were cleared in the forested area and used as ' nests ' . The trees gave protection from the wind so , in comparison to the main base , only a skeleton staff was required . Little remains of the sub - station site except some traces of the mooring pit . Current use . After the site was closed in 1920 , the site was forested during the 1920s and when the trees were felled in the 1960s and 1970s it was discovered that some of the buildings still remained . The chimneys and entrance pillars were demolished in 1966 as the structures were thought to be unsafe . As of early 2013 , the site is currently woodland . It is difficult to find the original layout of the airfield from remains but there are still some concrete floors , mooring blocks and other massive bits of concrete within the trees . In 2003 , Longside Community Council had a memorial plaque mounted on to a structure that is thought to have been part of the officer ' s mess . The structure is just beside the small parking area at the entrance to the forest . The plaque incorporates a photo of the base , which is held at the RAF Museum .