Lossiemouth

Contacts: Marina Office 01343 813066, VHF 12. This office is manned 0900 to 1600 weekdays only;

Lossiemouth is a crossroads for most of the cruising boats passing along this coast; the standard day hop route being Inverness, Lossie, Whitehills/Banff, Peterhead and South or vice versa. It provides excellent shelter and full marina type services although it can be touch and go entering in northerlies and the depths in the entrance can be prohibitive to deep keel boats two hours either side of Low Water.

The first harbour here was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century but it was never a real success. The local Elgin worthies hewed a replacement harbour from the rocks of Stotfield Head in the early nineteenth century which is the present day East basin. The expansion of the fishing fleet and the arrival of the railway necessitated a further expansion with the building of the West basin later in that century and that, the East & West basins is the harbour we have today.

You can find their harbour website at http://www.lossiemouthmarina.com

The dying fishing industry in the early to mid twentieth century and the subsequent closure of the railway branch line caused the harbour board to reassess their position and they were the first on this coast to realise the potential of the leisure market. In 1992 they put in pontoons in the East basin whilst continuing the commercial enterprise in the West basin. Eventually the fishing side of the harbour declined so far that they have now put pontoons in the West basin, most of which are occupied by yachts and private angling boats.

One thing which has kept the village, and arguably the town of Elgin, alive has been the presence of the airfield to the west of the town. This was laid out for the RAF during WWII and after that war became a Royal Naval Air Station (HMS Fulmar). In the 1970s the shrinking of the Royal Navy's Carrier fleet forced them to give up many of their airfields, this one included, but luckily for Lossiemouth and Elgin the RAF reassumed command of the airfield and now during your stay at the Marina you will be all too aware of the presence of the RAF Typhoons, especially if they have night flying whilst you are there. The populace here has been subjected to the noise of jet fighters and bombers since the days of the Vampire and Seahawk and seem not to notice it; you will not be so untroubled!!

Other than the airfield and the harbour, the town has little in the way of industry; the once busy daily fish market closed in the early noughties and has now been developed as housing. Most of the locals go into Elgin for their supplies as there are very few large shops in the village.

When you peruse our "Facilities" and "Eating etc" sections you will begin to see why this place is popular as stopping place for the coastal cruiser.