Moray Firth and Loch Ness

Allan & Helen
2 days ago
5 min read

Day 4 didn’t start quite as planned as the hotel we stayed in was very poor. After a rough nights sleep we were not even able to get any breakfast, indeed the hotel seemed deserted of staff altogether. So we made a hasty retreat and headed down to the first lifeboat station of the day where we found a lovely café on the Harbour called The Seafront. We arrived just as they had opened and were made very welcome. Check out their Facebook page below. Thank you for a delicious breakfast and amazing generosity.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSeafrontMacduff/

Macduff Lifeboat Station

Over at the station it was quiet and nobody was around to meet us.

The station was built in 1999 to accommodate a unique launch process for their Atlantic 85 lifeboat; a Scania flatbed truck with a davit. The station itself was established in 1974 on a trial basis but became permanent in 1975. The current station is located closer to the harbour than previous stations. In the absence of a suitable launch site at the station the Scania truck transports the Atlantic 85 to any suitable nearby quayside making it relatively flexible with its launch location.

Their current Lifeboat is B-933, Skipasund which was on station in 2022

We took our required photos and had a look around the outside of the station before heading to our next stop.

Buckie Lifeboat Station

Buckie is a small town on the Moray Coast with the busy harbour at its heart. Built in 1877, it was the major fishing port of the Moray Firth.

Lying in the harbour is the uniquely designed Lifeboat Station, a square single storey building over the water resting on piles. When we arrived we could clearly see their Severn Class lifeboat moored alongside and some crew activity going on. We noticed that the crew were taking photographs of a lovely dog and its owner on the boat. The crew spotted us and welcomed us into the station where we met Harris, a Springer Spaniel who was also fundraising for the RNLI by taking part in the Mayday Mile campaign.

We also met crew members Stevie (ticktock), Mikey , James and Alex and they very kindly offered us a cup of tea and a chance to look around their boat.

Stevie gave us an interesting tour of the station before heading down the jetty to their Severn Class. The station was established in Buckie in 1860. A boathouse built in 1885 still exists and is a car servicing garage. This was replaced in 1922 with a boathouse inside the west pier of the harbour and subsequently, in 1995, the current station was constructed with jetty access to the Lifeboat.

After donning lifejackets, Stevie and the crew took us down to the lifeboat, Williams Blannin (17-37). Here they gave us a fascinating tour of the boat and allowed us to take the Coxwain and Helm positions whilst describing the controls and navigation systems.

Finally we had our photos taken on the boat and we headed back to the station to say our farewells. A huge thank you to all of the crew who took time out of their weekend to welcome us.

Loch Ness Lifeboat Station

It took around 90 minutes to get from Buckie through Inverness to Loch Ness. We had checked beforehand that we could gain access as the station is gated. We parked next to the station and were welcomed by Crew members Catherine and Toby. They showed us around the station and then we were joined by Helm, Neil and Crew member Joanna who continued the tour of their Atlantic 85.

Opening the slipway doors revealed a stunning view of the Loch and Urquhart Bay with the famous Urquhart Castle just visible on the shore. The weather was changeable, within minutes we were exposed to heavy rain followed by bright sunshine and then blustery winds. As Neil explained, these were just some of the many challenges facing the crew and the leisure craft on the Loch. Other than these changing weather conditions, the vast Loch offers other unique challenges found nowhere else in the UK. Loch Ness is deep, very deep. The deepest point is 230 metres. The sides, both above and below the waterline are also very steep meaning that when using sonar to navigate the waters, the depth measurements can go from a few metres to undetectable due to the sonar range. The water is also very dark and very cold. For any casualties finding themselves in the water this can be very dangerous and a swift response from the crew and other vessels is vital.

The station itself is a fantastic facility built in 2017 however there has been a lifeboat station on the Loch since 2008. Operating from a pier just a few hundred metres along the shoreline, the first Atlantic 75 class inshore lifeboat was moored on a floating hydrohoist. The new station provided superb crew facilities and a slipway for the Atlantic 85 mounted on a carriage on rails. The station was funded in part by generous donations of just under £1 million with the rest, thought to total £2.7million, being met from the generous bequest of Mrs Agnes A. P. Barr, of the Irn-Bru Barr family.

The Lifeboat is an Atlantic 85 class called Sheila & Dennis Tongue IV (B-902). Funding for the boat was from the bequest of the late Dennis Tongue, of Exeter, who died in 2014. He left provisions in his Will to purchase four Atlantic-class lifeboats, the Loch Ness lifeboat being the last of the four. The others are based in Sligo Bay, Looe and Staithes & Runswick respectively.

The crews at Loch Ness do get some unusual taskings, none more so than a ditched Sea Plane. On 17 October 2020, they were called to the aid of “Miss Pick Up”, a World War 2 Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat. After a day of filming, the aircraft, belonging to the Imperial War Museum Duxford, suffered engine failure before take-off, and was recovered by the RNLI to a mooring buoy. The aircraft was subsequently brought ashore for an engine swap before taking off safely on 1 December 2020, returning to her base at Duxford. You can read more about the Catalina Flying Boat here.

https://www.cahs.com/misspickupatlochness.html

Our visit to Loch Ness Lifeboat station was fascinating and we are so grateful to Catherine, Toby, Neil and Joanna for taking up so much of their day to meet with us and share their unique stories. We said our fond farewells and headed north back to Inverness where we were staying for the night.

On the way we spotted a Trent Class lifeboat moored in the location of the Jacobite Loch Ness Cruise company. Unable to resist the chance to take a look we parked up and headed down to the waters edge to find Trent Class 14-23, Mora Edith Macdonald. This boat is now part of the relief fleet of Trent’s but was once based at Oban. We were puzzled by her location and so the following day we made some enquiries online and discovered that she was on her way south back to Oban via the Caledonian Canal to resume relief duties.