Newcastle Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboats | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | South Promenade, Newcastle, County Down BT33 0EX |
| Telephone | 028 4372 5138 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Newcastle Lifeboat Station stands on the South Promenade at the foot of Slieve Donard, highest of the Mourne Mountains, on the County Down coast. With origins reaching back to 1825 on the shores of Dundrum Bay, it is one of the most decorated stations in the RNLI, its crews honoured with thirty medals for gallantry. Long an all-weather station — latterly home to the RNLI’s last Mersey-class lifeboat — it now operates an Atlantic 85 and a D-class inshore lifeboat.
The County Down branch of the RNIPLS established a lifeboat at Rossglass in 1825, later moved to St John’s Point. After numerous wrecks in Dundrum Bay — including the stranding of Brunel’s SS Great Britain in 1846 — the RNLI placed a lifeboat at Newcastle in 1854, the boathouse paid for by the Earl of Annesley. A series of pulling-and-sailing lifeboats served through the 19th century, with a new boathouse on Downs Road in 1881.
A station with slipway was built in 1936 for the motor lifeboat L. P. and St Helen, which in a single remarkable wartime year was involved in three medal services. The Mersey-class era began in 1993 with Eleanor and Bryant Girling, followed by the Leonard Kent, launched and recovered over the beach by a powerful tractor.
Across two centuries the station’s boats have saved more than 400 lives and answered calls from sailing dinghies to ocean-going ships. Following a 2025 fleet decision, Newcastle’s Mersey — expected to be the last in RNLI service — was retired and replaced by the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Berylium (B-955), working alongside the D-class Cameronian (D-908), returning the station to a configuration of fast inshore boats for the waters of Dundrum Bay.
