Raigmore House

Raigmore House
Near Inverness in Scotland
Communications mast dating from the period when the estate was used by the RAF; the filter room bunker was in the mound behind the mast
Raigmore House Location within Invernesshire
Coordinates	57°28′54″N 4°11′57″W / 57.48158°N 4.19903°W / 57.48158; -4.19903Coordinates: 57°28′54″N 4°11′57″W / 57.48158°N 4.19903°W / 57.48158; -4.19903
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Site history
Built	1940 (1940)
In use	1941-1943 (1943)
Battles/wars	Second World War
Garrison information
Occupants	No. 14 Group RAF

Raigmore House was a country house in Raigmore, Inverness.

The house was designed by Archibald Simpson and constructed for Lachlan Mackintosh of Raigmore, a merchant who had returned from Calcutta, in about 1810. On Lachlan Mackintosh's death in 1845, the estate passed to Aeneas Mackintosh, his son. The site was requisitioned for military use in June 1940 during the Second World War: the house itself became the officers mess for the headquarters of No. 14 Group RAF in 1941; the Operations Centre of No. 14 Group RAF was housed there in three buildings (Operations Room, Filter Room and Communications Centre), which were partially buried for protection, in a similar way to buildings for No. 9 Group RAF at RAF Barton Hall, No. 10 Group RAF at RAF Box, No. 11 Group RAF at RAF Uxbridge, No. 12 Group RAF at RAF Watnall and No. 13 Group RAF at RAF Newcastle. Much of the remainder of the site was used to create a Emergency Hospital Service facility which evolved to become Raigmore Hospital.

After No. 14 Group was disbanded in 1943, the house became the local headquarters for the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. Meanwhile the filter room bunker was used by the Civil Defence Corps from 1958 and by the Royal Observer Corps from 1968; it was acquired by Highland Council for use as their emergency centre in 1988. The operations room bunker and the communications centre bunker have both been demolished since the war.