Longhope Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | Longhope, South Walls, Orkney, KW16 3PB |
| Telephone | 01856 701333 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From Longhope on the Orkney island of South Walls, the station runs a Tamar-class all-weather lifeboat covering the north side of the Pentland Firth. A lifeboat has served here since 1874 — and the station’s history holds both a long record of gallantry and one of the worst tragedies in British lifeboat history.
The RNLI established a lifeboat at Longhope in 1874, with a boathouse and slipway on the island of Hoy, to cover the perilous Pentland Firth. Over a century and a half the station has earned a remarkable gallantry record, including Coxswain Daniel Kirkpatrick’s three Silver Medals — at the time, the only living man to hold three.
On the night of 17 March 1969, the Longhope lifeboat T.G.B. launched into a Force 9 gale to the Liberian steamer Irene, driven towards the Caithness coast. She radioed her position and was never heard from again; found capsized the next day, she had been lost with her entire crew of eight. The dead included Coxswain Daniel Kirkpatrick and two of his sons, Mechanic Robert Johnston and two of his sons, and two more men. The disaster devastated the small community of Brims, and led the RNLI to make all subsequent lifeboats self-righting.
The crew rebuilt, and the station serves still, running the Tamar-class Helen Comrie since 2006. The old boathouse on Hoy is now the Longhope Lifeboat Museum.
