Port Edgar is a marina on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, immediately west of the

Forth Road Bridge The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinbur ...

and the town of

South Queensferry Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is administered by the City of Edinburgh council area. It lies ten miles to the no ...

, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, Scotland. Originally a naval base, HMS ''Lochinvar'', Port Edgar is now a busy marina with a sailing school and 300 berths. The Edgar commemorated in the name is

Edgar Aetheling Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, r ...

, the brother of Queen Margaret (for whom Queensferry is named). Previously operated by Edinburgh Leisure, the private investment company Port Edgar Marina Limited took over management of the marina in April 2014. Part of the group's £1.5m development plans included a capital dredging project to alleviate concerns about harbour depth. Prior to this project, activity at Port Edgar was threatened by the failure of successive management structures to maintain harbour depths through dredging after the departure of the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy

Bought by the Admiralty in 1916 as the site of a future Naval base, the pier at Port Edgar had been regularly used by

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

ships since the 1850s. Shortly after its purchase, the wounded of the Battle of Jutland were landed at Port Edgar for the Royal Naval Hospital at Butlaw, Queensferry. The dead of the battle were buried in the local cemetery. In 1917 the completed base was commissioned as HMS ''Columbine'', a depot for Torpedo Boat Destroyers of the

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...

. HMS ''Columbine'' and the naval hospital at Butlaw were closed in 1938. In 1939, at the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Port Edgar was commissioned as HMS ''Lochinvar'', a training establishment for the Royal Naval Patrol Service. In 1943 HMS ''Lochinvar'' relocated to

Granton Harbour Granton is a district in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland. Granton forms part of Edinburgh's waterfront along the Firth of Forth and is, historically, an industrial area having a large harbour. Granton is part of Edinburgh's large scale waterf ...

just a few miles along the coast. Port Edgar became the home to HMS ''Hopetoun'', a Combined Operations training centre for British and Allied navies training for the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. After the war, HMS ''Hopetoun'' closed and in 1946 HMS ''Lochinvar'' returned to Port Edgar. It was now home to the Royal Navy

minesweepers A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

clearing the Firth of Forth and the eastern coast of Britain of its wartime

minefields A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

. In 1958 the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron was moved to HMS ''Lochinvar''. By 1960 the port also became the Navy's only minesweeping training establishment. In 1975 HMS ''Lochinvar'' closed and all its operations moved across the Forth to HMS ''Caledonia'' in the rebuilt naval base at

Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...

. Today Port Edgar is owned by Port Edgar Holdings Ltd and is a marina for pleasure craft and a base for other watersports. It sits just west of the Forth Road Bridge, within sight of the 1890 Rail Bridge, and in the shadow of the new

Queensferry Crossing The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensfe ...

. Port Edgar will sit amongst three major bridges, from three centuries. In 1988 the Algerines Association unveiled a memorial at Port Edgar to the minesweepers and fishery protection vessels based at Port Edgar and Granton between 1939 and 1975.

HMS ''Temeraire''

From 1955 to 1960 Port Edgar was the home to the

stone frigate A stone frigate is a naval establishment on land. "Stone frigate" is an informal term that has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the French in 1803–04. ...

HMS ''Temeraire'', the training location of the Upper Yardman Scheme.

Gallery

File:Forth Bridge - General view from Port Edgar, with trees in the foreground.jpg, The construction of the Forth Bridge as seen from Port Edgar, 1887 File:The Lights of Rosyth From the Forth Bridge Footpath. Port Edgar and the Fleet. Art.IWMART631.jpg, Battleships in the Forth, 1914 File:Port Edgar Marina.jpg, The main slipway File:Port Edgar marina. - geograph.org.uk - 63768.jpg, The centre of the marina File:South Queensferry Townscape Corrugated Iron Sheds at Port Edgar (geograph 3031804).jpg, Derelict iron sheds, now demolished File:Tips of the Breakwaters at Port Edgar - geograph.org.uk - 947213.jpg, Various craft at the entrance of the marina File:Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud - geograph.org.uk - 641786.jpg, The mudflats File:East wall of Port Edgar marina, and some old bridge - geograph.org.uk - 823586.jpg, The eastern breakwater at eventide File:A view north east from Port Edgar - geograph.org.uk - 823607.jpg, Twilight at Port Edgar

References

External links

* {{coord, 55.993, -3.409, display=title, region:GB-EDH_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Ports and harbours of Scotland Marinas in Scotland Firth of Forth

The Royal Navy

HMS ''Temeraire''

Gallery

See also

References

External links