North Berwick Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Carriage |
| Address | Victoria Road, North Berwick, East Lothian EH39 4JL |
| Telephone | 01620 893418 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
North Berwick Lifeboat Station serves the south side of the Firth of Forth from the East Lothian seaside town, 20 miles east of Edinburgh. A lifeboat was first stationed here in 1860 after a local shipwreck, and although the station closed in 1925 it was re-opened in 1967 as one of the inshore stations funded by the BBC’s Blue Peter appeal. It operates a D-class inshore lifeboat from a historic boathouse on Victoria Road.
The wreck of the schooner Bubona near Canty Bay in October 1859 prompted calls for a lifeboat, and in October 1860 the RNLI dispatched a 30-foot pulling-and-sailing lifeboat to North Berwick, paid for by a gift from Messrs Jaffray of London and drawn through the town in a grand parade. Six traditional rowing lifeboats served from the Victoria Road boathouse over the following decades. With launches becoming rare — the lifeboat was called out only once between 1920 and 1925 — the station closed in 1925.
The drowning of fisherman Benjamin Pearson in 1965 renewed local support, and in 1967, after the hugely successful Blue Peter paperback appeal funded several inshore boats, North Berwick re-opened as an inshore station with the D-class Blue Peter III (D-112). Five successive Blue Peter III boats served between 1967 and 2013, collectively rescuing over 277 people. The station now operates the D-class inshore lifeboat Sunijo (D-891), on service since 2024.
