Carrybridge Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | 23 Inishmore Road, Gola, Lisbellaw, County Fermanagh BT94 5DQ |
| Telephone | 07557 312663 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Carrybridge Lifeboat Station is an inland station on the eastern shore of Upper Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, about six miles south-east of Enniskillen. Established in 2002 to work alongside the original Lough Erne station, it covers a maze of islands and channels on one of the busiest inland waterways in Ireland. It operates an Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat and a rescue water craft.
Lough Erne is a vast inland waterway — the upper and lower loughs together stretch some 26 miles — carrying over 2,000 craft a year, and in the 1990s it had seen an average of two lives lost annually. After the RNLI established its first inland station at the lower lough in 2001, the size and complexity of the system led to the placing of a second lifeboat on the upper lough at Carrybridge, originally named Enniskillen (Upper) Lifeboat Station and operational from 1 June 2002.
The station ran a succession of six older Atlantic-class lifeboats over just 15 years, and a new station building with boat hall, workshop and crew facilities was provided in 2015. In 2017 the station was renamed Carrybridge, and received its first new Atlantic 85 lifeboat, funded by the John and Elizabeth Allan Memorial Trust and named Douglas, Euan & Kay Richards (B-904) after the donor’s three children.
