Kirkcudbright RNLI’s ILB Sheila Stenhouse B- 814 – “She deserves a medal”

This article was posted on Kirkcudbright RNLI Lifeboat Station’s Facebook page on 25/08/2026

Kirkcudbright RNLI’s ILB Sheila Stenhouse B- 814 – “She deserves a medal”

The lifeboat has performed amazingly during the last 20 months she has been moored in the river while the boathouse was being extended and renovated. These are the words of Kirkcudbright RNLI’s mechanic John Collins who has maintained the Sheila Stenhouse for 20 years.

Now the oldest Atlantic 85 in the RNLI Fleet this boat has served the coast around the Solway for two decades. As Kirkcudbright crew take over the wonderful new boathouse facility the current boat has been retired and will be replaced with a new Atlantic 85.

When she first came on service she was one of the earliest Atlantic 85’s in Scotland. On 13 October 2007 she was named at Kirkcudbright Harbour by Mrs Carol Richmond, in memory of her late aunt, whose bequest had funded the lifeboat. Like many boats in the RNLI fleet she was funded by the generosity of donors. The Sheila Stenhouse replaced the Atlantic 21 Peter and Grace Ewing.

The service record of the Sheila Stenhouse was

197 launches

198 people assisted

93 craft assisted

25% of her activity was to assist sailing boats.

The Atlantic 85 was an improvement on the former Atlantic 21. The Sheila Stenhouse was capable of speeds

Aerial drone shot of Kirkcudbright Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat Sheila Stenhouse B-814 at sea during a training exercise at sunset. Shot for Kirkcudbright lifeboat station appeal.

up to 35 knots the Atlantic 85 could launch in daylight in force 7 conditions and at night in a force 6.

As the numbers above testify the Sheila Stenhouse has been involved in many and varied call outs. Sometimes being turned back even before launching and at other times launching in rough dangerous conditions and being at sea for many hours.

She has covered cliff rescues, capsized boats, engine failures, missing person searches, recovery of vessels run aground. Numerous kayakers, swimmers, fishermen and people stranded. Most shouts have good outcomes but the crew’s thoughts often turn to the more tragic events. However the volunteer crew can be very proud of the more than 200 people that have been assisted when needing help.

Through all this the Sheila Stenhouse, given as a generous gift, has been an excellent lifeboat and will be missed.

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St. Cuthbert’s Cemetery, Kirkcudbright (the Kirkyard)

St. Cuthbert’s Cemetery, Kirkcudbright (the Kirkyard)

[Revised from the original Galloway News ‘Museum Piece’ (July 2010)]

St. Cuthbert’s Cemetery (the Kirkyard)  is of particular historic interest. The older, lower part of the cemetery is known to be the location of the original ‘Kirk of St Cuthbert’, possibly established sometime in the period 680 – 750 when Galloway was part of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. The church may have been an important mission centre or minster to spread Christianity in this part of Galloway. The new church was dedicated to the patron saint of Northumbria – St Cuthbert. Although the church has long since gone, its name moved down the hill to the burgh and port which was established sometime after it on the banks of the Dee – Kirkcudbright.

The earliest burial within the bounds of the present cemetery may date as far back as sometime in the 10thcentury.  In May 1888, when the cemetery was extended on to the higher ground above the original site,

A type of Viking or Norse sword found May 1988

workmen came across a type of Norse or Viking sword together with a cloak pin and a glass bead. No skeletal remains were found, but the group of finds is typical of a pagan burial of a sword-carrying Viking freeman. These finds can now be seen in The Stewartry Museum in Kirkcudbright.  But why was a pagan Viking buried near an early Christian church?  Such a burial fits the hypothesis that men of Viking descent were encouraged to settle on the Stewartry coast, receiving land in return for military service to counter the threat of attacks by other Vikings or Gaelic-speaking raiders from Ireland. The Norse derivation of place-names in these areas, such as ‘Borgue, ‘Rerrick’, ‘Rascarrel’ etc. is thought to be  further evidence of this deliberate settlement policy.

The kirkyard contains several interesting monuments. The earliest gravestone, dated 1620, commemorates a John Shawe, and the large and impressive Renaissance monument to the left of the main

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BRIDGE AT Kirkcudbright. (To the Editor of the Dumfries and Galloway Courier.)

1st of January 1858.

‘Sirs, the inhabitants of Kirkcudbright have for upwards of half a century been tantalized with prospect of the erection of a bridge over the River at Kirkcudbright. When I was a boy, I well remember that when a candidate for the Stewartry appeared in the field, it was given out that he would procure us a bridge, and the running of the Mail Coach viz Kirkcudbright. These were then the grand desiderates of the town; Member after Member was sent to Parliament, but the bridge was lost sight of, except when some humane and public spirited gentleman like the late Mr McCulloch of Ardwall, shocked by the ever-recurring sacrifice of human life at our abominable Ferry (it is exceeded in this respect only by the Ferry at Creetown), attempted to rouse the Road Trustees of the Stewartry to a feeling of the clamant demand for a bridge. Ardwall’s agitation was received in the County meetings very much in the same manner as was the late Mr McCulloch of Barholm’s half-yearly motion for a petition to the House of Commons for the repeal of the Corn Laws; but by

Post Boy, outside shop in Castle St. He rode to Tarff Bridge to connect with the Mail Coach there.

earnestness and perseverance, he succeeded in getting the late Mr Jardine brought out to make a survey and inspection for a site. Mr Jardine made his report, but nothing followed on it excepting much grumbling at the payment of the expense of it. Ardwall, wearied out and displeased, ceased troubling, declaring that he at least would, like many others, avoid the Ferry, and take the circuitous route by way of Tongland and Tarff Bridges in all time coming. There is now a prospect of a railway, this circumstance induces me to address you. I am not wild on the subject of a railway. I do not imagine, like some persons, that the obtaining a railway is to convert Kirkcudbright into a miniature Liverpool or Glasgow. One good the formation of a railway to Kirkcudbright will effect is the erection of a bridge at Kirkcudbright; another is the making of suitable breastwork along the river side for the accommodation of our splendid steamer, where she may, with safety and even dignity, take her berth, instead of twining and twisting herself (at the risk of breaking her back, and the Jetty itself), into the present dock. Let all, while having their various opinions as to the extent of the advantage of the railway itself, unite in viewing it as a means to an end. I mean, to a bridge. Unless a railway is made, there is no chance whatever for a bridge for the next hundred years, if even at the expiry of that period. Without a railway Kirkcudbright must become stationary or rather fall behind. We boggled for years at gas, at steam, and at the telegraph, but have had to accept all of them, and are nothing the worse, but very much the reverse. Why, then, should we fear the rail?

By agitation we obtained a lighthouse; by a like course, we shall get a rail, and then the bridge. Without it the lumbering old tub of a ferry boat will continue to trail slowly along from mud bank to mud bank, sometimes having for a part of her cargo, a cart, the contents of which are redolent of a town ashpit, while the other part may be a conveyance, giving out sweet essences and filled with crinoline (for there is no first class, second class, or third class arrangements at our ferry). Let the inhabitants of the town and district

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