Kippford Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | Roughfirth Road, Kippford, Dumfries and Galloway, DG5 4LN |
| Telephone | 01556 620131 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
In the village of Kippford, on the east bank of the River Urr at the head of Rough Firth, this small station runs a single D-class inshore lifeboat over the sands and channels of the Solway. The RNLI established the station in 1966.
As the RNLI spread its small, fast inshore lifeboats around the coast, a station was established at Kippford in May 1966, with a D-class boat. For its first decades the lifeboat was kept in a garage, operating only in the summer; from 1999 it became a year-round station.
Kippford sits on the Urr estuary at the head of Rough Firth, a popular sailing and watersports area — the village is home to the Solway Yacht Club — but one laced with fast tides, sandbanks and channels that catch out the unwary.
In 2001 a house on the main street was converted into a proper lifeboat station, with crew facilities and a shop; the current D-class, the Ronnie Sinclair, arrived in 2021.
