Cromarty Coastguard

Welcome to the website of the Cromarty Coastguard Rescue team.

We are one of the teams within the Aberdeen Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC).

Aberdeen MRCC covers the North and East coasts of Scotland from Cape Wrath (the most Northwesterly point on mainland Scotland) to Doonies Point (just south of Aberdeen), including the Pentland Firth, Caledonian Canal & Loch Ness and a large area of the northern North Sea.

The Cromarty Rescue Team covers the whole Black Isle and provides flank cover to the Inverness and Invergordon teams, and also provide assistance to other emergency services, co-ordinated through the MRCC.

There are currently 9 members in the team who live and/or work, on and around the Black Isle.

The team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to incidents.

Cromarty

Demography

The attractive, well preserved town of Cromarty lies at the entrance to the Cromarty Firth.
It has enjoyed a revival in recent years, with many of the traditional properties preserved or restored. Birth Place of the renowned geologist Hugh Miller,

Image via Wikipedia

it attracts an increasing number of tourists each year to visit the historic Court House, Hugh Millers cottage, enjoy dolphin spotting boat trips and cross the Firth on the “Kings ferry”.

Aberdeen University have a field centre based in the lighthouse buildings, which carries out research into the Moray Firth’s seals and bottle nose dolphins.

The deep waters of the Cromarty Firth allow an increasing number of large cruise ships to visit Invergordon, and there is a thriving oil related industry in the maintenance of oil rigs, through the Cromarty Firth Port Control, fabrication yards at Nigg and Evanton and an oil terminal at Nigg. It is also important as a wildlife habitat, with RSPB reserves at Nigg and Udale bays.

The old market town of Dingwall, lies at the head of the Firth, with the main A9 connecting Northwards through Evanton, Alness, & Invergordon.

There are three thriving sailing clubs at Cromarty, Fortrose and Invergordon, with many dinghy and cruiser races taking place through out the season .

Geography

Cromarty response area includes large areas of mud/sand, stone beaches, high cliffs at the North & South Sutors and industrial areas at Nigg and Invergordon. The Black Isle is a mixture of agricultural farm land and forest areas, with the only recreational beaches at Cromarty itself and Rosemarkie.

Coastguard Building

This is an old traditional stone & slate building which used to be a constantly manned station.
Comprising a two storey building with detached garage, it is in a good state of repair.
It is located above the harbour next to the light house and commands an excellent view East to the Sutors, and Westward into the Cromarty Firth.

Vehicles & Equipment

A Toyota Kingcab 4×4 with trailer
Cromarty has full search and rope rescue equipment.

Team

Currently SO + 8 , three short of the full complement. Team members are now drawn from the surrounding area.

Incidents

Incident type and location has changed over the years, with a statistically higher number of incidents occurring in the Chanonry area. This spread of members allows a faster response on scene where appropriate, for information gathering and visual reports.

Statistically, most call outs are search/investigative based, but there have been several cliff incidents over the years requiring rope rescue response. Average number of incidents 18 per annum.

Training

All team members will be trained in rope rescue, search techniques, communications and First Aid.
Specific training is also given to man the remote aerial site at Learnie, in the event of a communications outage with Aberdeen MRCC.