Anstruther Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | East Shore, Anstruther, Fife KY10 3AB |
| Telephone | 01333 310526 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Anstruther Lifeboat Station has served the East Neuk of Fife since 1865, founded at the request of local fishermen who feared being blown to leeward of the pier in a storm. For over 160 years its crews have covered the approaches to the Firth of Forth, and the station has been honoured with medals for gallantry stretching back to coastguard rescues of the 1830s. It operates a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class inshore boat.
Following a visit by the deputy Inspector of Lifeboats, the RNLI established a station at Anstruther in 1865. The entire cost was met by a £600 gift from Miss H. Harvie of Cheltenham, with £60 added by local fishermen, and the first 32-foot pulling-and-sailing lifeboat, named Admiral Fitzroy after the pioneering meteorologist, arrived on 18 November 1865 to a local holiday.
In the early years the station was unusually run with several unpaid coxswains, each with his own crew, before a single Coxswain Superintendent was appointed. The station progressed through pulling, sailing and motor lifeboats over the following century, gaining a co-located D-class inshore lifeboat in the 2000s. In March 2024 the new Shannon-class 13-47 Robert and Catherine Steen was displayed at Westminster Abbey for the RNLI’s 200th-anniversary service before becoming operational at Anstruther on 27 August 2024.
A purpose-built station to house the Shannon is under construction along the shoreline, and the Anstruther crew have featured on the BBC series Saving Lives at Sea. The station also took over cover from the neighbouring St Andrews station to the north after it closed in 1938, and for many years its all-weather lifeboats were among the few on this stretch able to launch in the worst weather — as on the night of the 1953 Arbroath disaster, when the Anstruther boat was first away into the gale.
