Wicklow Lifeboat Station
| All-Weather Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
| Launch Method | Afloat |
| Address | East Pier, Wicklow Harbour, Wicklow, County Wicklow, Ireland |
| Telephone | 0404 67163 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Wicklow Lifeboat Station has served the County Wicklow coast since 1857, guarding the harbour town and the notorious offshore sandbanks — Arklow Bank and the Wicklow shoals — that have claimed many ships. For over 160 years its crews have answered calls along this stretch of the Irish Sea, and the station today operates a Shannon-class all-weather lifeboat and a D-class inshore boat.
Even before a lifeboat was based at Wicklow, coastguards won Silver Medals for daring surf rescues here in the 1830s. A station was established in 1857, but its first boathouse was poorly sited and threatened by coastal erosion; a replacement was built on the Murrough in 1866, the lifeboat Robert Theophilus Garden being paraded through the town at her naming, and another boathouse with slipway followed on the East Pier in 1886 to ease launching over the shingle. Through the 20th century the station ran motor lifeboats, and from 1989 the Tyne-class Annie Blaker served for 30 years, launching 340 times and rescuing over 400 people — she was the last Tyne-class, and the last steel-hulled lifeboat, in RNLI service when withdrawn in 2019.
A Shannon-class lifeboat followed: after a relief boat and then 13-27 Joanna and Henry Williams, the station received its permanent Shannon, 13-33 Bridie O’Shea, in 2024 . The D-class inshore lifeboat Dennis-Audrey (D-806) has been on service since 2017.
