Barmouth Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | SLARS |
| Address | The Promenade, Barmouth, Gwynedd, LL42 1NF |
| Telephone | 01341 280274 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
At the mouth of the Mawddach estuary on the north shore of Cardigan Bay, Barmouth runs a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class. One of the RNLI’s oldest stations, serving since 1828, it holds a notable place in lifeboat history — its crew won the first Silver Medals ever awarded to an inshore-lifeboat crew.
Many shipwrecks along this coast underlined the need for a lifeboat, and following a request by the Rev. Frederick Ricketts the RNIPLS provided one to Barmouth in 1828 — a 26-foot, six-oared Palmer-type boat that arrived by sea aboard the sloop Dove. The station passed to the RNLI in 1854. Even before the station, in 1825, local man Edmond Lewis had won one of the RNLI’s earliest Silver Medals for a daring cliff rescue from the wreck of the Neptune.
An inshore lifeboat station was added in 1967. On 21 June 1971, the inshore crew rescued a woman who had fallen over a cliff, working in heavy seas that swamped the boat; John Henry Stockford, Colin Pugh and Dr Robert Airdrie Haworth received Silver Medals — the first ever awarded to an ILB crew — and the Ralph Glister Award.
Successive all-weather lifeboats followed, and the station now runs the Shannon-class Ella Larsen alongside the D-class, covering the Mawddach estuary, its bar and the bay. Today’s casualties are largely pleasure craft and swimmers.
