Ulster Flying Club Ltd., Portaferry Road, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT23 3NN

Ulster Flying Club Ltd, Portaferry Road, Newtownards

A comprehensive set of Second World War defence structures designed to protect Newtownards airfield, constructed between 1940 and 1959.

No.1 Main Hangar sits to the west of the runway. This 1940s barrel-vaulted aircraft hangar measures approximately 24 metres wide by 58 metres long by 7 metres high. Two large hangar doors are positioned to the north-west. The main structure is clad with curved corrugated iron sheeting, with two lines of translucent panels located along the main axis near the top of the curved roof. To the south-east is a gabled shorter portion with one long, centrally positioned, high-level horizontal slot window and smaller low-level steel windows to each side. The north-east side of the rear section is blank, though the south-west side has a small pass door. This rear section is clad with asbestos-like sheeting.

No.2 Pill Box is a small observation post situated west of the main hangar. The six-sided structure with a flat roof is constructed in concrete and faced with concrete slabs. The west face is broader than the other faces and has two small window slots (formerly with steel shutters) and a low central doorway (formerly with a steel door). All other faces have similar window slots.

No.3 Pill Box is another small observation post of similar construction to No.2, located to the east of the runway on top of the sea wall. The roof is partly covered with grass-covered earth. On the roof stands a post approximately 4 metres high, used until recently for flying the wind sock. This post is reported to be a surviving portion of an aircraft wing strut from a plane that crashed during take-off in the 1950s while reportedly transporting a bull to the Isle of Man. According to local accounts, the animal broke free in the hold during flight, causing the crash; the fate of the crew and the bull is not known.

No.4 Brick Enclosure is a small roofless brick structure measuring approximately 4 metres wide by 6 metres long by 2.5 metres high. It contains the remains of an unidentified piece of machinery, and its original function is unknown.

No.5 Slit Trench is a small slit trench with two barrel-vaulted concrete bunkers attached. The bunkers have ceiling heights of approximately 1.2 metres. Ordnance Survey mapping indicates similar structures existed west of the runway, but no evidence of these could be found.

No.6 Gun Range is a brick wall 4 to 5 metres high with earth banked up to either side, used to test the guns and cannons of aircraft.

No.7 Munitions Store is a large brick structure, now roofless, with a single cell and three reducing brick buttresses to each of the long walls and two buttresses to the south short wall. The north short wall is missing, but tall flanking walls remain to the east and west. Steel roof beams are visible, though all roof covering has been removed. Behind the south flanking wall is a roofless small brick-built room with a single door and window opening. Blockwork walls to the north-west side appear to have been built sometime in the 1960s for an unidentified purpose. High-level steel blast doors are present on the west and east facades, with one low-level similar door on the west facade, all relating to the original munitions storage use.

No.8 Air Raid Shelter is a brick and concrete air raid shelter partly buried within the sea wall. Its full extent is difficult to determine as the door and much of the structure are covered with earth. Ordnance Survey mapping records similar structures, but these could not be located due to undergrowth.

Historical context: The Ards Airport opened on 31 August 1934, its establishment owed much to the then Lord Londonderry, a keen aviator and former Secretary of State for Air, who made part of his estate available for the purpose. Commercial services ran from the airport until 1938, when they were transferred to Sydenham Airport. The Northern Ireland Aero Club gained a permanent home at the airfield and continues there under its present name, the Ulster Flying Club. Its activities were interrupted during the Second World War, when the airfield was used for pilot training and these defensive structures were built as part of Northern Ireland's wartime defences. The site reverted to recreational use shortly after 1945.