Fairy Lochs (USAAF) Memorial

One month after VE Day, fifteen young Americans boarded a B-24 Liberator at Prestwick, bound for home. The planned route should have taken them over Stornoway and out across the North Atlantic. Instead, the aircraft veered inland over Wester Ross. Whether navigational error, mechanical failure, or the dense cloud cover was responsible remains unknown. The Liberator began descending through heavy overcast, its crew likely disoriented. The aircraft struck the upper slopes of Slioch, tearing off bomb bay doors, then broke through the clouds above Loch Gairloch. Seconds later it struck the hills above the Fairy Lochs at high speed, shattering across the hillside and into the water. No one survived. The wreckage -- including landing gear, airframe sections, propellers, and engines, some partially submerged in the loch -- remains scattered across the site to this day. The area is classified as a war grave, and visitors are expected not to disturb the remains. The site has become one of the most visited and photographed WW2 crash sites in Scotland, accessible via a 2-3 mile walk from Gairloch.