Longhope Lifeboat Museum
About
Longhope Lifeboat Museum occupies the former lifeboat station at Brims, on the shore of South Walls near Longhope on the island of Hoy, Orkney, and preserves both a historic RNLI lifeboat and the memory of one of the most devastating events in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution: the loss of the entire eight-man crew of the Longhope lifeboat TGB on the night of 17 March 1969, while attempting to rescue the crew of the stricken Liberian cargo vessel Irene during a violent storm off South Ronaldsay. The disaster remains, more than half a century later, the single worst loss of life in Orkney's maritime rescue history and one of the defining tragedies in the RNLI's national story, and it devastated the small, tightly knit Longhope community — the eight men lost that night included a father and two sons from one family, and two brothers from another, a scale of loss that fell almost incomprehensibly hard on a community of only a few hundred people.
Housed within the old boathouse itself, the museum's centrepiece is the preserved Thomas McCunn, the wooden pulling-and-sailing lifeboat that served the Longhope station in earlier decades before the ill-fated TGB, giving visitors a direct physical sense of the vessels and equipment with which generations of Longhope lifeboatmen — nearly all drawn from the same small circle of local farming and fishing families — carried out one of the most dangerous voluntary occupations in Britain. Displays document the wider history of the RNLI's presence in Orkney's notoriously treacherous waters, where the meeting of the North Sea and Atlantic, combined with strong tidal races through the Pentland Firth and Scapa Flow approaches, has claimed vessels and lives across many centuries of maritime traffic.
Beyond the equipment and vessels themselves, the museum functions as a memorial to the 1969 disaster and to the broader tradition of volunteer lifeboat service that the tragedy so starkly illustrated: ordinary working men of the island, unpaid volunteers rather than professional mariners, who put to sea in appalling conditions because the call had come and their neighbours' lives depended on it. A memorial to the eight men lost stands near the museum, and the story told here — of courage, loss, and a small community's enduring grief and pride — gives Longhope Lifeboat Museum a resonance that extends well beyond its modest scale.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check seasonal opening dates before travelling, as this small volunteer-run museum typically opens May to September only.
- Plan around the Houton-Lyness ferry timetable to Hoy, and allow extra travel time as onward roads on the island are rural and winding.
- Visit the nearby Longhope Kirkyard memorial to the eight lost crewmen to complete the story told inside the museum.
- Combine your visit with the Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness for a fuller picture of Hoy's maritime and wartime history.
- The museum is small and can be seen in under an hour, but the emotional weight of the 1969 disaster story means many visitors linger longer than the displays alone might suggest.
- Bring appropriate clothing for the exposed Orkney coastal setting, even in summer.
- As entry is free, consider leaving a donation to support the trust's ongoing conservation of the Thomas McCunn lifeboat and the memorial.
Highlights
The Thomas McCunn Lifeboat
The museum's centrepiece is the Thomas McCunn, a wooden pulling-and-sailing lifeboat that served the Longhope RNLI station in earlier decades of the twentieth century, preserved within the old boathouse where it once launched down the slipway to answer distress calls in some of the most exposed and dangerous waters around the British Isles.
Standing beside the vessel, visitors gain a direct, physical sense of the scale and construction of the lifeboats crewed by generations of Longhope men, and of the sheer physical demands placed on oar and sail-powered rescue craft operating in Orkney's notoriously severe sea conditions before the era of powerful diesel-engined lifeboats.
The 1969 TGB Disaster
On the night of 17 March 1969, the Longhope lifeboat TGB capsized with the loss of all eight crew while attempting to rescue the crew of the Liberian cargo vessel Irene, wrecked off South Ronaldsay during a severe storm — a tragedy that remains the worst single loss of life in Orkney's maritime rescue history and one of the defining disasters in the RNLI's national story.
The museum's memorial displays document the disaster in careful, respectful detail: the conditions that night, the rescue attempt itself, and the devastating toll on a small island community that lost, among others, a father and two sons from one family and two brothers from another in a single catastrophic event.
The Longhope Lifeboat Crews — A Community of Volunteers
Displays throughout the museum draw out the essential character of the RNLI as a volunteer service, staffed not by professional mariners but by ordinary working men of the Longhope community — farmers, fishermen and tradesmen — who trained together, launched together, and in 1969 died together, drawn overwhelmingly from a tight circle of local families with generations-deep connections to the station.
This material conveys the profound sense of local ownership and sacrifice that has always characterised the RNLI's presence in small island and coastal communities across Britain, nowhere more starkly illustrated than at Longhope.
Orkney's Treacherous Waters
The seas around Orkney, where the North Sea and Atlantic meet and powerful tidal races surge through the Pentland Firth and the approaches to Scapa Flow, have claimed vessels and lives across many centuries of maritime traffic, making the islands one of the most demanding operating environments for lifeboat crews anywhere in the United Kingdom.
Interpretive material explains the specific navigational and weather hazards of these waters, giving context for why a rescue station was established at Longhope in the first place and why the 1969 disaster, tragic as it was, represented an ever-present risk that Orkney's lifeboat crews accepted as part of their voluntary service.
Collections
The museum's core collection is the preserved Thomas McCunn lifeboat, displayed within the historic Brims boathouse alongside period rescue equipment and documentary material on the RNLI's presence in Orkney.
A dedicated memorial gallery documents the 1969 loss of the Longhope lifeboat TGB and all eight of her crew, combining artefacts and personal testimony to commemorate both the disaster itself and the wider tradition of volunteer sea rescue it so starkly illustrates.
The Thomas McCunn Lifeboat
The preserved wooden pulling-and-sailing lifeboat that served Longhope station in earlier decades, displayed within the historic boathouse.
The 1969 Longhope Lifeboat Disaster
Memorial gallery documenting the loss of the TGB and all eight crew on 17 March 1969, and its impact on the Longhope community.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.