Invergordon Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Invergordon, Highland, IV18 0BD |
| Telephone | 01349 853915 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From the deep-water port of Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth, the station runs a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat over the inner and outer Moray Firth. The RNLI established the present station in 1974, continuing a lifeboat tradition in the area going back to the 1870s.
Lifeboats had served the inner Moray Firth from Cromarty and elsewhere for many years, but as fishing and shipping declined the Cromarty station closed in 1968. When the North Sea oil boom brought a surge of shipping back into the Cromarty Firth, the RNLI re-established a station at Invergordon in 1974, well placed by the firth’s sheltered deep-water anchorage.
One of its most extraordinary services came on 15 January 2002, when the lifeboat was called to the Ukrainian cargo vessel Est, anchored at the firth mouth, where the first mate had reportedly taken the crew hostage. As men leapt into the sea to escape, crew member Allan Lipp went into the water to save one who had jumped, and the casualty was revived aboard the lifeboat.
Invergordon received the Shannon-class Agnes A. P. Barr in 2021 — the first lifeboat part-funded by the ‘Launch a Memory’ appeal, and named with a bottle of Irn-Bru.
