About
Morayvia is an aviation and science-technology attraction at Kinloss in Moray, occupying a converted former primary school on North Road with an outdoor display area alongside. Its name joins Moray to aviation, and its subject is the extraordinary concentration of military flying that this small corner of Scotland has supported for the better part of a century. RAF Kinloss lay immediately beside the site until it passed to the Army in 2011, and RAF Lossiemouth is a short distance along the coast, so the aircraft on display here are not generic exhibits but types with a direct local connection.
The site divides into two halves. Indoors is the science and technology experience, with cockpit sections, aero engines, flight simulators and displays covering search and rescue and the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft that flew from Kinloss for decades. Outdoors is a display zone of full-size aircraft and partial airframes, together with preserved fire engines. The combination of walk-round complete airframes and cockpit sections that visitors can actually sit in makes this a far more hands-on proposition than a conventional museum, and it is aimed squarely at families as well as at aviation enthusiasts.
Search and rescue has a particular resonance at Kinloss. The station was long associated with the coordination of UK search and rescue operations and with the mountain rescue teams that worked the Cairngorms and the north-west Highlands, and the Nimrod force based here spent much of its operational life on maritime patrol, submarine hunting and long-range search over the North Atlantic. When the Nimrod fleet was retired the RAF presence at Kinloss ended with it, which is part of why a volunteer-founded museum recording that history exists in the village.
Morayvia also operates a seven-metre mobile inflatable planetarium presenting immersive astronomy shows, charged separately at £3. The 2026 season runs from Saturday 28 March to Sunday 25 October, open every Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm, plus additional Thursdays in April, July, August and October. Admission is £8 for adults and £5 for children aged four to sixteen, with under-fours free.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The 2026 season runs 28 March to 25 October, weekends only apart from extra Thursdays in April, July, August and October — check the website for the current extra dates.
- Last entry is 4pm, an hour before closing, so do not arrive late in the afternoon.
- The planetarium is charged separately at £3 and runs to a schedule — check show times when you arrive rather than at the end.
- Allow at least two hours; the split between indoor exhibits and the outdoor aircraft park takes longer than people expect.
- Dress for the weather, since a substantial part of the collection is displayed outdoors.
- Children aged 4 to 16 are £5 and under-4s are free, making this one of the better-value family stops in Moray.
- Talk to the volunteers — many have served, and their firsthand knowledge is a large part of the value of a visit.
- Climbing into cockpit sections involves steps and ladders, so wear practical clothing and footwear.
Highlights
The Outdoor Aircraft Display
The outdoor zone holds full-size aircraft and partial airframes that visitors can walk around and, in several cases, get inside. There is no substitute for standing next to a complete airframe: photographs consistently fail to convey the scale of military aircraft, and the difference between reading that a maritime patrol aircraft is large and walking the length of one is considerable.
The open-air setting also means the aircraft are seen against the Moray sky in the district where they actually operated, rather than under the roof of a hangar hundreds of miles from their base.
Cockpit Sections You Can Sit In
Among the indoor exhibits are cockpit sections that visitors are able to climb into and occupy. This is the single feature that most distinguishes Morayvia from a conventional aviation museum, where cockpits are almost always viewed from a roped-off distance. Sitting in a military cockpit conveys things no display board can: how confined the space is, how the controls and instruments are actually arranged around a body, and how little of the outside world is visible.
For younger visitors in particular it converts an abstract interest in aircraft into something physical.
The Nimrod and RAF Kinloss
Kinloss was for decades the home of the RAF's Nimrod maritime patrol force, and the museum sits immediately beside the former station, which passed to the Army in 2011 after the Nimrod's withdrawal. The Nimrod's work — long-range maritime patrol, anti-submarine operations and search over the North Atlantic — was unglamorous, largely invisible to the public, and central to Britain's cold-war and post-cold-war posture.
Displays here treat it as local history as much as military history, because for the villages around Kinloss the aircraft and the station were simply part of daily life.
Search and Rescue
Search and rescue is a recurring theme, and it carries particular weight at Kinloss, a station long associated with the coordination of rescue operations and with mountain rescue work across the Cairngorms and the north-west Highlands. This is the aspect of military aviation with the most direct civilian consequence, and the one the surrounding communities knew best: the aircraft and crews that went out for lost hillwalkers, fishing vessels in difficulty and casualties on remote ground.
The displays give it the prominence it deserves rather than treating it as a footnote to combat operations.
Collections
Morayvia holds an aviation and science-technology collection at Kinloss in Moray, split between an indoor experience area in a converted former primary school and an outdoor display zone. Indoor exhibits include cockpit sections that visitors can climb into, aero engines, flight simulators, and displays on search and rescue and on the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft that flew from the adjacent RAF Kinloss for decades until the station passed to the Army in 2011.
The outdoor area holds full-size aircraft and partial airframes together with preserved fire engines and ground equipment.
A seven-metre mobile inflatable planetarium presents astronomy shows, charged separately. The 2026 season runs from 28 March to 25 October, open Saturdays and Sundays 11am to 5pm with last entry at 4pm and additional Thursdays in April, July, August and October. Admission is £8 for adults and £5 for children aged four to sixteen.
The Indoor Sci-Tech Experience
Cockpit sections, aero engines, flight simulators and displays on search and rescue and the Nimrod maritime patrol force, in the converted school building.
The Outdoor Aircraft Park
Full-size aircraft, partial airframes, fire engines and ground equipment displayed in the open beside the former RAF Kinloss.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.
Nearby Museums (3 within 6 miles)
Findhorn Heritage Centre and Ice House
History & Archaeology
Findhorn, Forres — ~39 min walk (2.0 mi)