Valentia Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Afloat |
| Address | Knightstown, Valentia Island, County Kerry, Ireland |
| Telephone | 066 947 6100 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Valentia Lifeboat Station, at Knightstown on the eastern tip of Valentia Island in County Kerry, covers some of the most challenging Atlantic waters off the south-west coast of Ireland. A lifeboat has served these waters since 1864, when the RNLI first stationed a boat at Reenard Point on the mainland, and the station’s crews have a long record of gallantry. It operates a Severn-class all-weather lifeboat, the largest in the RNLI fleet.
The RNLI first placed a lifeboat at Reenard Point, on the mainland opposite Valentia Island, in 1864, and later moved the station across to the island, where the only available crew lived. In 1890 a new lifeboat, the Crosby Leonard, arrived by train at Killorglin — then the nearest railhead — and the crew sailed and rowed her the 40 miles round to the station. The early station later closed, but during the Second World War an auxiliary rescue boat was placed at Valentia to help aircrew forced down as they flew in over the Atlantic, and a new permanent station followed.
A new boathouse was built in 1995, and the following year Valentia became one of around 35 stations to receive the RNLI’s largest lifeboat, the Severn-class 17-07 John and Margaret Doig, which remains on service. The island is also famous as the eastern landfall of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, laid in 1858.
