Regular flying ends at RAF Kinloss base

RAF Kinloss was home to Nimrod surveillance aircraft

Regular flying operations are coming to an end at RAF Kinloss.

Aviation facilities will be maintained until the RAF leaves the Moray station in 2013.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced earlier this month that nearby RAF Lossiemouth will be the only air base retained in Scotland.

Kinloss, along with RAF Leuchars in Fife, will become a base for the army as a result of changes Mr Fox described as a "coherent long-term strategy".

RAF Kinloss was home to Nimrod surveillance aircraft before all of those stationed there were retired in 2010.

The overall effect of the moves announced by the defence secretary will be to increase the number of service personnel based in Scotland.

At the time of the announcement, Mr Fox said: "The overall package I have announced today is good news for our armed forces and means that they can look forward to the future with renewed confidence."

RAF Kinloss began life in 1939 as a pilot training school.

It had been constructed in less than a year, as Britain prepared for the looming conflict in Europe.

Links with the local community were marked in 1962 by the station being given the freedom of the burgh of Forres, the first military unit to have been given the honour in the burgh's 1,400 year history.