Durris Transmitter - Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Posted by: 
creg-ny-baa
N 57° 00.077 W 002° 23.299
30V E 537156 N 6317695
The tallest structure in Scotland serves the bulk of the north-east of the country as well as over a hundred miles of the east coast.
Waymark Code: WMWNYF
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/24/2017
Views: 2
This 1056 foot tall mast is situated on the eastern shoulder of the Grampian Mountains 15 miles south-west of the city of Aberdeen and 6 miles south-east of the town of Banchory. It lies 315 metres above sea level amidst the Forest of Durris a mile south of the A957 Slug Road which connects Banchory with the coastal town of Stonehaven.
The need for a transmitter here came with the advent of Independent Television in the early 1960s. The Independent Television Authority required a 405 line VHF service and chose a site on high ground to the south of Aberdeen to serve a wide sweep of area along the coastal stretch of north-east Scotland to the east of the Grampians.
The transmitter was switched on at the same time as the Aberdeen based Grampian Television on September 30th 1961. The UHF BBC2 was switched on, on July 29th 1967, and BBC1 and ITV on July 1971. The 405 line was shut down on July 9th 1984 and the transmitter was re-engineered during 2008 for the digital switchover. The analogue television shut down occurred on September 15th 2010.
The transmitter currently serves as the main UHF for Aberdeenshire and is the primary UHF main station in the north-east. It takes in DAB radio services and relays BBC FM from the Meldrum transmitter to the north-west of Aberdeen.
The mast is of a lattice triangular cross-section, 1006 feet high, with the UHF antenna adding another 50 feet, thus making it at the moment the highest structure in Scotland. The transmitter can be reached easily on foot up the tarmac service road which heads southwards up through the forest from a bend on the A957 road at Spyhill.