West of Scotland - Kintyre & Islay

From our  base at the wonderful Kirkland House B&B, we headed south and along the west coast road of the Kintyre peninsula arriving at Campbeltown Lifeboat Station a little early.

Campbeltown Lifeboat Station

We took our evidence photo and photos of the Severn class lifeboat moored in the marina before knocking on the open door and heading up to the crew room. Here we were met by Coxwain Ruaridh who explained that they were doing some crew training. We had a quick chat which included talking about King Charles III visit a few weeks beforehand, a very humbling experience for all the crew by all accounts. We left Ruaridh to head back to his training and said our farewells.

The Campbeltown Lifeboat Station was established in 1861at the New Quay in the town centre. In 1898 a new station was built with a slipway and used until 1931. Both buildings still exist to this day. The current station building was completed in 1996 close to the harbour moorings that have been used since 1912. It houses a D-Class lifeboat and Landrover allowing it to be launched from several locations around the peninsula.

They have two lifeboats the Severn Class 17-19, Earnest and Mary Shaw, on station in 1999. The D-Class, Leonard Mills D-870 was on station in 2022.

After a cup of tea in a local café we retraced our journey back up the west coast arriving at the port of Kennacraig where we awaited our CalMac Ferry across to the Island of Islay. It was a very pleasant 2 hour crossing and we arrived in the tiny port of Askaig on the Isle of Islay.

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Islay Lifeboat Station

We could see the lifeboat and the station as we docked and after embarking we parked in the nearby carpark and headed to the station. We were greeted by Coxwain David and Mechanic Gripper.

We had a lovely chat over a cup of tea and biscuits. The crew had been out the night before until 3am and we were so grateful for them being available to meet us. Gripper was struggling with a shoulder injury and so was unable to go out on the boat on the shout. However, he explained that he will always attend the station when the pager goes off to support the crew and the boat, no matter what time of day or night – that’s dedication and sums up how passionate these volunteers are about the work they do.

We took a walk down to the Severn Class Lifeboat moored in the small harbour. They have a boarding boat for the short hop over to the Severn. As we chatted with David we could see the ferocity of the current running through the narrow Sound of Islay between Jura and Islay. David explained some of the challenges they face with such currents and many of their rescues are to boats that get caught out by their speed. Indeed on the north side of the Isle of Jura lies the infamous Gulf of Corryvreckan, known as Scotland’s Maelstrom.

The Severn Class boat was funded by the Schroder Charity Trust established by the Schroder family of the local estate of Dunlossit and is called Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II, 17-08. This lifeboat has been in service at Islay since 1997. Their previous lifeboat, a Thames Class, adorned with the same name, capsized while responding to a distress call, in November 1979, from a Danish coast called Lone Dania. The boat self-righted and all of the crew returned safely.

The old station building was a small building which is now used for storage and was established with the station in 1934. It temporarily moved to Port Ellen between 1947 and 1948. Their current station was built in 2013 next to the ferry terminal building.

Heading back to the station, David kindly opened the shop so we could purchase a pin badge. We said our goodbyes and thanked both David and Gripper for meeting us.

We had about 30 minutes to take a short drive across the narrow part of the Island before checking in for ferry crossing number 5 back to Kennacraig and the B&B.