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Kirkbride Airfield lies in the north-west corner of Cumbria, some nine miles west of Carlisle, between the fells of the Lake District and the Solway heritage coast. A former RAF storage and maintenance station turned civilian airfield, it offers a long asphalt runway and a friendly, PPR-based general aviation operation run by Solway Light Aviation Ltd.
Kirkbride Airfield is a privately operated general aviation airfield in north-west Cumbria, owned and maintained by Solway Light Aviation Ltd. It began life as a Royal Air Force storage and maintenance station before the Second World War and today serves visiting light aircraft, gyroplanes and local flying activity. Pilots are drawn by its dramatic setting, with the Lake District fells to the east and the Solway coast to the west, and by its unusually long hard runway for a field of this type.
Kirkbride sits in the north-west corner of Cumbria, close to the Solway Firth, and is easy to find just nine miles west of Carlisle. The airfield is bounded visually by the Lake District fells to the east and the Solway heritage coast to the west, giving pilots clear natural reference points when approaching from either direction.
Kirkbride has two paired hard runways. The main runway, 10/28, is 3,856 feet long, and the secondary runway, 04/22, is 3,428 feet long; both are of hard surface construction. There is no ILS at the field.
Kirkbride Radio operates on 124.405 MHz, though the frequency is not always manned, so pilots should be prepared to make blind calls if no response is received. There are no published instrument approaches at the airfield.
The airfield's setting provides strong natural landmarks for visual navigation: the fells of the Lake District rise to the east, while the Solway Firth and its heritage coastline lie to the west. The city of Carlisle, some nine miles to the east, is a useful reference point for pilots inbound from that direction.
Kirkbride Airfield opened in May 1939 as a storage and maintenance base, holding aircraft safely after they had been built at various factories and before they were delivered to front-line units. During the early years of the Second World War the airfield saw such a volume of movements that No. 16 Ferry Pilots Pool of the Air Transport Auxiliary was formed there, with its base established in what is now the White Heather Hotel building. No. 12 Maintenance Unit was also based at Kirkbride, and between 1939 and 1960 it handled aircraft types ranging from Austers to Liberators. After the war the airfield became a vast storage area for surplus airframes; a photograph from 1947 shows the field packed with nearly 1,200 aircraft. No. 12 MU remained at Kirkbride until 1960, when the last aircraft to leave, a Gloster Meteor NF14, departed and the RAF closed the station.
Kirkbride is owned and maintained by Solway Light Aviation Ltd and remains active as a general aviation airfield. Avgas and Jet A1 fuel are available on a prior permission required (PPR) basis, with core hours for Avgas typically from 10am to 2pm. Overnight and permanent hangarage can be arranged, and the site is also home to a gyroplane school offering trial flights and sightseeing tours over the Lake District. The former RAF mess building now operates as the on-site White Heather restaurant, and the airfield hosts periodic fly-in events for visiting aircraft.
