Ireland – Penultimate Day

With just six visits remaining on our whole challenge, our penultimate day in Ireland would see us tick off half of those. It was a 30 minute drive from our accommodation down to the town of Wicklow for our first visit.

Wicklow Lifeboat Station

The lifeboat station is at the head of the east pier of Wicklow harbour and on arrival we popped into the shop which was open earlier than we expected and advertised. However, we discovered that the lovely Jennifer was expecting us and opened up early for our arrival.

In the station we were warmly welcomed by Coxswain Ciaran and the many volunteers that had come to the station to meet us. Ciaran introduced us to Visits Officer John, Senior Regional Technician Adam, Lifeboat Training Coordinator and Navigator Carol, Coxswains Nick & Alan, Mechanic John, Launch Authority Adrian and Admin Officer NiChaoimh. We then enjoyed an extremely informative tour of the station from Ciaran who had a wealth of historical knowledge.

The station opened in 1857 by the RNLI with the original boathouse being used until 1865 when it was undermined by erosion. A year later a new boathouse was completed to the north of the river on a peninsula named The Murrough. It still stands today and can be seen from the current boathouse. Built in 1887 with a slipway, the current building has been altered several times in its lifetime and now houses their Inshore Lifeboat.

The inshore lifeboat was first introduced in 1995 as seasonal support. Their D-Class, Dennis-Audrey (D-806) joined the station in 2017 and launches on the slipway via a winch and carriage.

Upon the retirement of their Tyne Class all weather lifeboat, Annie Blaker in 2019, Wicklow received their first Shannon Class. Annie Blaker was the last of her class in service and was subsequently sold to an enthusiast. She is now resident in Guernsey and operated by former Coxswain Buzz White as a pleasure boat. We saw this boat when we visited Guernsey on our Challenge in March 2026.

Wicklow have had three Shannon class boats since 2019, the first was from the relief fleet, 13-01 Jock and Annie Slater. In 2020 their first station assigned boat was 13-27 Joanna and Henry Williams and she was replaced by their current Shannon in 2024. Bridie O’Shea (13-33) was moored alongside the quay a few hundred metres from the station.

After a great chat and some good banter we had some photos with the crew and of the boats and said our goodbyes. A fantastic welcome from the crew and a very enjoyable visit indeed.

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Arklow Lifeboat Station

Another 30 minute hop down the coast and we arrived in Arklow. The beautiful station building was surrounded by fabulous landscaping and artifacts, a little green oasis in an otherwise concrete harbour surrounded by industrial units.

We were warmly welcomed by Station Manager Tommy, Fundraiser Tony, Mechanic James and volunteer Joy. This year they are celebrating their 200^th anniversary making them the oldest lifeboat station in Ireland, established in 1826 two years after the foundation of the institution.

We had a great chat about their plans for the anniversary year and about our challenge before venturing out to their Shannon Class lifeboat moored alongside a pontoon in the small harbour.

The current station building was constructed in 1988 with improved crew facilities. Their Shannon Class lifeboat joined the station in June 2025, one of the newest in the fleet. She is named Roy Holloway (13-53) in memory of a quietly spoken music teacher from Kingswinford, the primary donor of the vessel, with a £1.4million bequest to the Institution.

The boat was immaculate as was to be expected and Mechanic James was very proud to show us around. It had that ‘new car’ smell.

We chatted for a good while before heading off to our next and last visit of the day. However, upon leaving the station car park, I clumsily reversed into a low stone wall which was extremely embarrassing.

With our tails between our legs we apologised profusely and headed further south to the town or Courtown.

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Courtown Lifeboat Station

We had arrived a little early so parked up on the north pier and took a stroll along the waterfront in the sunshine. At the station we visited the shop where we purchased a pin badge and were then welcomed up to the crew room by Helm Peter. He apologised in advance that he couldn’t spare much time as he was on the school run. However, he took the time to chat with us and give us a tour of the station and the D-Class lifeboat.

The station was opened in 1865 but closed in 1925 as the area was covered by motor lifeboats at Arklow and Wexford. Opened again in 1990, an inshore lifeboat was assigned to the station and the 1911 boathouse was repurposed to house a D-Class and crew facilities. In 2001 a new slipway was constructed on the seaward side of the pier but Peter explained that most commonly the boat is launched into the harbour for improved protection.

Their D-Class, D-846 Frank, joined the station in 2020.

We didn’t want to hold Peter back and so we thanked him for his time and said our farewells.

This was our penultimate day of visits in Ireland and the drive to our next overnight accommodation in Wexford was tinged with sadness and a dented rear bumper and pride.