Mallaig Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Moored afloat |
| Address | The Harbour, Mallaig, Highland, PH41 4QB |
| Telephone | 01687 462579 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
From the working fishing port of Mallaig, the most westerly lifeboat station on the British mainland, the crews run a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat over the South Minch, the Small Isles of Eigg, Rum and Canna, and the coasts of Skye. A lifeboat has served here since 1948.
Mallaig Lifeboat Station was established in January 1948, taking over the boat and role of the Tobermory station, which had closed for want of a crew the previous month; the former Tobermory lifeboat Sir Arthur Rose became the first Mallaig boat, carrying with her the little St John’s Cross of Iona.
The station’s greatest single rescue came in January 1953, when the motor vessel Tapti ran aground in the Gunna Sound between Coll and Tiree with sixty-two people aboard; the Mallaig boat went alongside one of the ship’s boats and took off all 62. In 1988 Coxswain Thomas Ralston won the station’s first gallantry medal, the Bronze, for handling the lifeboat in Force 11 to save the fishing vessel Galilean.
As the most westerly station on the mainland, Mallaig answers the South Minch and the south and east coasts of Skye, and often carries doctors or patients to remote communities. It has run the Severn-class Henry Alston Hewat since 2001.
