Melness Coastguard

20/03/2025

Continuing our busy start to 2025, Melness, Durness, Melvich and Thurso Coastguard Teams responded to a missing person incident last night.

Thankfully the missing person was located by the Coastguard Teams working alongside Police Scotland.

A big thanks to all involved

As always, if you see anyone in trouble on the coast , dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard.

30/11/2024

𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Let’s meet Claire, a recently qualified Coastguard from Inverness and hear what she has to say about joining as a volunteer.

‘I joined the Coastguard in early 2024. Over the first couple of months I did lots of training online then attended a 6 day practical course with 11 other new volunteers from across the area. It was really intensive and we learned loads including casualty care, water rescue, search skills and basic rope skills. The camaraderie was brilliant and we worked as a team to help each other through.
At the end of the course I became a member of Inverness CRT and started attending emergency call outs a few days later. After all the training, I felt really well prepared and it has been great fun and really rewarding so far. You learn more with each job you do and the rest of the team is very supportive.’

If you think you’d be interested in becoming a volunteer like Claire then please get in touch or visit the link below for more information and to apply.

https://www.gov.uk/volunteer-as-a-coastguard/what-to-expect-as-a-volunteer

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧;
𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬
𝐆𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐡
𝐔𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐥
𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞
𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫
𝐃𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝
𝐖𝐢𝐜𝐤
𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲
𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐍𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐧

05/11/2024

14/01/2024

Congratulations to Gordon , Silvia and Katy for passing their rope operator course 😁😁

23/11/2023

Big Congratulations to Silvia and Katy who have just recently qualified and joined Melness Team. 😁

There are still a couple of spaces left in the team - if you are interested, please get in touch.

17/06/2023

A fortunate meeting with members of Melness Coastguard at Tongue Primary School…. (From L to R: Neil Uprichard, Lord-Lieutenant, Emily Allsop). The Coastguard were teaching pupils about their role, first aid and much more.

The coastguard saves lives 24 hours a day on the coast and at sea and works closely with the RNLI. They provide a superb search and rescue emergency coordination and response service. In Sutherland they often support other organisations such as local police and Mountain Rescue Teams. The Melness team cover a huge area from Lochinver in the south west to the edge of Caithness in the north east. The length of Highland Region coastline (of which Sutherland forms a major part) including islands at low water is a staggering 4,905 kilometres, 21 per cent of the Scottish total, and excluding islands is 1,900 kilometres (49 per cent of Scotland).

The Lord-Lieutenant thanked the team for their work and has undertaken to visit the team more properly in due course. Coastguard Teams deserve all the recognition we can possibly give them - especially in the summer visitor season when they are at their busiest.

Melness Coastguard Wick and Duncansby Coastguard Ullapool coastguard Tongue, Highland Assynt Mountain Rescue Team RNLI Lochinver Lifeboat

23/11/2022

RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS NOW

HM Coastguard are recruiting new volunteers to join the Coastguard Rescue Service in Melness.

As an emergency service, each day is different as a volunteer with HM Coastguard.
On call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Coastguard Rescue Teams are made up of people from all walks of life that are specially trained and equipped to respond to a wide range of emergency incidents, including people needing help in the water, mud rescue, rope rescue, medical emergencies, helicopter operations, missing person searches as well as many other core skills.
Officers can be called out in all-weather conditions and may have to work in hazardous situations as well as carry out physically demanding tasks.
Coastguard Rescue Officers play a vital role in serving and supporting local communities in which they work and live, helping to keep people safe in coastal areas and also by working alongside our emergency service colleagues and other partner agencies.
If you are interested in joining HM Coastguard as a Coastguard Rescue Officer, you must:
• Be aged 18 years or over
• Be physically fit and pass a Coastguard medical
• Be prepared and available to attend mandatory training and assessments
• Be prepared to respond in environments that will involve working in the water
• Be prepared to respond in environments involving heights
• Live and / or work in a location that enables a timely response to incidents. The decision about suitability will be made by full time officers for the area according to local circumstances
• Hold a full UK driving licence. These will be checked for validity. Individuals with 9 or more penalty points on their licence will not be accepted
• Have transport to be able to attend Coastguard duties
• Agree to the terms of and adhere to the CRS Code of Conduct.
For those keen to join the Coastguard Rescue Service and volunteer – please send a note of interest via e-mail to [email protected] and include your name, location, contact number and email address. Please also specify which Coastguard Rescue Team you have an interest in joining in your local area. You will then be sent an application form.
For further information about what it is like to be a volunteer, visit: https://www.gov.uk/voluntee.../what-to-expect-as-a-volunteer

Also feel free to get in contact with any of the current Melness team for a chat about what we do.