Courtown Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Slipway |
| Address | The Pier, Courtown Harbour, Courtown, County Wexford, Ireland |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Courtown Lifeboat Station serves the north County Wexford coast from the small harbour at Courtown, in the “sunny south-east” of Ireland. The RNLI first stationed a lifeboat here in 1865; the station closed in 1925 but was re-established as an inshore station in 1990. It operates a D-class inshore lifeboat, launched from the harbour to assist swimmers, anglers and leisure craft along this popular holiday coast.
After local people approached the RNLI, a station was built at Courtown in September 1865, the lifeboat — funded by the Institution’s Manchester branch — arriving that December. A slipway was added on the north side of the harbour in 1885, and a new boathouse built in 1911. The station’s sailing lifeboats served the north Wexford coast for 60 years, but once a motor lifeboat was placed at Arklow in 1915, able to cover a far wider area, the need diminished, and Courtown closed in 1925.
During the Second World War the RNLI stationed an ‘auxiliary rescue boat’ — a modified motor fishing boat — at Courtown, part of an arrangement to provide additional cover for aircrew coming down off the Irish coast while the country remained neutral. As leisure use of the coast grew, the RNLI decided in 1990 to re-establish Courtown as an inshore station; a D-class lifeboat entered service on 15 May 1990, and the old boathouse was bought back and refurbished to house it. The current D-class lifeboat is Frank (D-846).
