The Dummy Drome

The intriguing story of the WW2 airfield that wasn't there!Read stories from the people who held thise closely-guarded secret for yearsPart of the remarkable story of the war of deception to confound Hitler

The Dummy Dromeis a well-researched story about an aerodrome that wasn’t really there – this was RAF Wick’s decoyairfield near Sarclet, by Thrumster in Caithness.  

The featureless landscape wasgrazed by sheep finding what sustenance they could and there were no people orstructures in sight. Even the ‘solid ground’ was only an illusion: a wideexpanse of heather covered a great depth of peat bog that couldn’t be ploughedfor fear machinery and animals would sink. 

This deception was exactlywhat was needed – an illusion dreamed up by military strategists and cinema-setdesigners in faraway offices. For a brief period it was busy, active and vital,full of people and buildings with three broad and very obvious tracks withlights and noise. It was very much on the map, specifically designed to drawattention to itself. 

The Air Ministrycartographers who made it look larger than it really was transposed the designof a real aerodrome onto a blank area on the map of northern Scotland. Theplanners added standard building designs in the right places. Huge quantitiesof raw materials were brought to the site and construction workers createdrunways that a plane could not land on. Artists and craftsmen made planes thatcouldn’t fly and even painted them onto canvas. Men and women from all over thecountry came here to work at a place that was not a working airfield, althoughtheir very presence as they moved about was an essential part of its apparentfunction. 

The Dummy Drometells the story of how it became a part of the lives of the peoplewho built it, worked there or lived nearby. These hitherto untold storiesreveal the experiences and recollections of the ordinary people who knew it andwho were sworn to secrecy. This was onlyone of over 200 similar decoy sites, and it is possible to piecetogether what’s left of it on the ground some 80 years later, since it is clearlyvisible from the air.