Post war, Fleet Air Arm activity at Donibristle slowed considerably and HMS Merlin was eventually run down and paid off by the Royal Navy in November 1953.

The Royal Naval Aircraft Yard continued to operate under the civilian contracted management of Airwork Ltd until April 1959 at which point the airfield site was completely closed.

The establishment of a military airfield at Donibristle can be traced back to the 1903 decision to build a major Royal Navy base at Rosyth as part of the Anglo-German Naval Arms Race.

On the night of 2/3 April 1916, two Zeppelin airships of the Imperial German Navy (L14/LZ 46 and L22/LZ 64) set out to bomb the naval vessels at anchor in the Firth of Forth and the Dockyard facilities at Rosyth.

The first Commanding Officer of 77 Sqn, Major William Milne MC, was a close personal friend of Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray who had a substantial family estate at Donibristle situated on the North coast of the River Forth.

The Earl was convinced to allow the establishment of a small emergency landing ground for 77 Sqn near to the estate's West Lodge Gates and Carriage Drive.

A letter dated 20 November 1917 from the Admiralty to Admiral Beatty, who had since been appointed as Commander of the Grand Fleet, explains that due to the decision to equip all light and battle cruisers with aircraft, there would be a need for extensive shore based support facilities to be established.

Donibristle, located just a few miles along the coast from the Naval Base at Rosyth and opposite the fleet anchorages in the Firth of Forth, was ideally situated for development to meet this need.

On 10 December 1917 the Admiralty wrote to the War Office requesting permission to construct a railway line and to extend a pier in connection with the launching and recovery of seaplanes.

Reasons listed by the Air Ministry included - close proximity to fleet anchorages, good rail and road links for transportation of aircraft and stores and centrally located between other establishments working with naval assets.

In April 1921 personnel from RAF Donibristle were deployed to Renfrew and Newcastle aerodromes to support the civilian authorities during the Coal Strikes and are recorded as having "unpleasant experiences".

Post war downsizing of the Royal Air Force eventually caught up with RAF Donibristle and on 31 October 1922 the station was reduced to a Care and Maintenance basis with only a skeleton staff in residence.

On 15 July 1925 the station was reactivated as part of RAF Coastal Area as a shore base for Fleet Air Arm aircraft under the command of Squadron Leader Thomas Wilfrid Elsdon.

This followed his return from service with RAF Iraq Command where he was Personal Staff Officer to the AOC Air Vice Marshal Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt.

For the next two years 100 Squadron Horsleys were regularly engaged in making dummy torpedo attacks on Royal Navy warships entering or leaving the Firth of Forth.

In November 1932, 100 Squadron swapped its Horsleys for the new and far superior Vickers Vildebeest, being the first unit to reequip with this new purpose-built torpedo bomber and introduce it to RAF service.

The Vildebeests were flown to RAF Sealand to be packed for shipment whilst personnel marched out from Donibristle on the evening of 7 December 1933 headed by the 603 Auxiliary Air Force Squadron Pipe Band.

In 1932 Aircraftsman by the name of 'Shaw' visited the Marine Section as part of his work developing fast motor launches as sea plane tenders and rescue boats.

On one occasion, an oil leak caused Winkle to put his Martlet down in Burntisland Reservoir but special floatation bags in the wings kept him afloat and the aircraft was salvaged.

802 Naval Air Squadron left Donibristle in July 1941 with Winkle joining a detachment aboard the Empire Audacity, a captured German Liner which had been converted into a new type of escort carrier carrying 8 Martlets.

782 Naval Air Squadron reformed at HMS Merlin on 1 December 1940 from a Communication Flight first established on 1 July 1940 with aircrews from Jersey Airways who had escaped German occupation.

From 1953 to 1958 the aircraft were operated for a further 5 years by civilian pilots working for Airwork Ltd. On 1 March 1943 Captain Henry Cecil Bovell CB CBE DSO took post as Station Commander.

Bovell was succeeded in this post on 17 March 1944 by Commodore Arthur Robin Moore Bridge CBE who would later serve as Naval Aide-de-camp to King George VI and receive a knighthood.

His Distinguished Service Cross had been awarded whilst in command of HMS Sikh for participation in the operation leading to the sinking of the German battleship Bismark.

Twelve squadrons were briefly based at HMS Merlin in the post war years, flying the Fairey Firefly, Grumman Avenger, Supermarine Seafire and Hawker Sea Fury.

[16] An investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) concluded that luminising of aircraft instrument dials using paint containing Radium-226 was routinely undertaken at HMS Merlin.

HMS Merlin included a Salvage Section which consisted of a number of buildings in the south east of the airfield, between the location of houses on the Wynd and the area where Dalgety Bay Sailing Club is currently situated.

Radioactive sources at Dalgety Bay have been found in the form of fine sand-sized grains, larger half-brick sized pieces or discrete objects, such as dials.

[16] The MOD undertook a comprehensive intrusive and investigative survey of the Dalgety Bay area and was able to show that there were large deposits of ashy material along the coastline which contained radioactive contaminants.

The remediation work, which began in 2021, has been carried out by MOD contractors to deliver a successful remediation of Dalgety Bay.The work replaced rock armour around the headland and installed a replacement slipway for the Dalgety Bay Sailing Club to ensure that higher activity sources are no longer being eroded out and washed onto the beach, preventing public access to the remaining contamination.