Qualla: Arran Lifeboat Station

Arran Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit G Laird, CC BY-SA 2.0. At 11:45 on a February morning in 1992, the call came in. Three canoes had capsized in Brodick Bay, three miles north of the Arran Lifeboat Station at Lamlash. A fourth person was already paddling out to help. Eight minutes later, at 11:53, the Prince of Arran was launched into force-6 winds and choppy seas. The crew reached the scene at 12:05. They found two empty canoes drifting and a single woman in the water who told them a man and two boys were still missing. The search continued. All three were found alive. All four people were brought ashore and transferred to hospital, where one of the boys was treated for severe hypothermia. This is the work of the Arran lifeboat — the kind of call that comes without warning, sends a small boat out into rough water, and returns with everyone accounted for.

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Image: G Laird | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arran Lifeboat Station: A Lifeboat Returns to the Island

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Arran first had an RNLI lifeboat in 1870, stationed at Kildonan on the south coast of the island. That station served for 31 years before closing in 1901. For nearly seven decades after that, the island had no lifeboat — its waters were covered by stations on the mainland and on ...

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Image: Leslie Barrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arran Lifeboat Station: Prince of Arran

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 17 June 1988, the station received its permanent C-class lifeboat, named Prince of Arran (C-521). The boat was the third lifeboat funded by guests aboard the vessels of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines — a model of charitable giving where cruise passengers, having seen something of th...

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Image: Leslie Barrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arran Lifeboat Station: The Rachel Hedderwick

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. The current lifeboat at Lamlash, Rachel Hedderwick (B-876), is named for Rachel Antoinette Hedderwick of East Saltoun — granddaughter of Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, the pioneering Scottish public health doctor — whose bequest funded its purchase. The boat was placed on service a...

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Image: Leslie Barrie | CC BY-SA 2.0

Arran Lifeboat Station: Smaller Calls, the Same Work

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Not every service is a high-drama rescue. On 22 July 1984, Clyde Coastguard reported a speedboat adrift. The Arran inshore lifeboat launched at 21:17 and reached the vessel at 21:40. The boat had been adrift for five hours after the engine's ignition key had broken — a small mech...

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Image: Leslie Barrie | CC BY-SA 2.0