Port Edgar is a marina on the southern shore of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is a firth in Scotland, an inlet of the North Sea that separates Fife to its north and Lothian to its south. Further inland, it becomes the estuary of the River Forth and several other rivers. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate ...

, immediately west of the

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

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 now administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. It lies ten miles to the nor ...

, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, 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 masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Middle Ages; it was, howeve ...

, 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 naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

ships since the 1850s. Shortly after its purchase, the wounded of the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...

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 th ...

. 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Port Edgar was commissioned as HMS ''Lochinvar'', a training establishment for the Royal Naval Patrol Service. In 1943 HMS ''Lochinvar'' relocated to Granton Harbour 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 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. 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. 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 () is a town and Garden City in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Scotland's first Garden city movement, Garden City, Rosyth is part of the Greater Dunfermline Area and is located 3 miles south of Dunfermline city cen ...

. 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. 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 which has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy (RN), after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the First French ...

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