"The army provided sea transport to and from St Kilda, using ageing LCTs (Landing Craft Tank) based at Marchwood, Southampton Water - a very long distance by sea."

Is it not the case that a trawler - the name escapes me - was in use for a time, and that - also perhaps for a time - the base from which the trawler and LCTs went to St Kilda was at Rhu?

Passerby

Oh no! Somebody's reading pages while they are being assembled! ;D

I'm afraid St Kilda's one of those pages that started off as an interesting single item (the pic of the gun started it) then the island history was recalled, then the missile radar, then the base, then the Puff Inn, then... then... ... then Operation Hardrock.

If you follow the reference, then the Southampton Water base info is provided by someone who took part in the construction.

I haven't added the info yet, but there is more to come regarding maintenance of the base... fortnightly supply runs in the summer, weather permitting, and made to the military base's own beach ramp, installed for the purpose to allow the landing craft ramps to offload supplies, and load rubbish for disposal.

Crewed by the RCT (Royal Corps of Transport) this beach landing craft made regular supply runs to the garisson on St Kilda. Officially classified as LCL Ardennes with a prow no of L4001. (LCL = Landing Craft Logistics)

I'm not sufficiently sure of the terminology to know if LCL and LCT are equivalent craft in different roles, but the LCL is large enough to transport tanks at sea.

I would have thought that supplies could have been despatched from somewhere closer than Rhu or the Clyde - but a reference or recollection/memory get it a mention.

I don't know if there is anything to scour up online, but I'll keep an eye out now that I'm aware, never know what's still to popup, provided you can wade through all the nature stuff and detailed early religious history of the community, which is well covered elsewhere, and not really our concern.

Incidentally, If anyone is interested, and doesn't try all the Map Links provided, then if you use the People's Map option on the St Kilda page, it will take you to a high resolution aerial view of the islands.

The photo of the radar installation to the south is also wrongly reported by the source, which I've notified, and will be correcting (if not already done by the time anyone reads this).

There certainly was a base in Rhu at (:gma-point lat=56.0164000 lon=-4.7791386 : now a marina) where the pongos ( naval slang for the Army) played at sailors with a landing craft or two.  Whether they supplied St. Kilda or not I do not know nor do I recall any other Army marine bases.  I cannot recall what the unit was called.  Frankly in those days anyone with Admiralty connections regarded it as a bit of a joke and consequently paid it little attention.

LCLs and LCTs: I think that the LCLs (?3 in number) were converted LCTs, with a normal ship's bow added in front of the ramp to make the ship slightly more seaworthy. Like the Army RPLs (Ramped Powered Lighters) they probably also had accommodation for the crew, which was not usual in an LCT, but this is a point of which I did not take notice when I had the chance. The base at Rhu was operated by the Royal Corps of Transport (whenever it came into existence).

Undoubtedly there were places closer to St Kilda than Rhu, but presumably the relatively small quantity of supplies could be adequately provided from there (on a fortnightly basis) without setting up a logistics depot any closer.

Sorry to have to make so many guesses and unsubstantiated statements, but most of my relevant library went into the Hampshire Naval Collection at Gosport, before I moved back to Scotland four years ago.

Passerby

Looking at the beach, it's clear why they used the area, but there's nothing (as you no doubt already know) in the usual places) to identify it. Possibly a trawl though Combined Ops info would yield something.

What's on the shore there now, do you happen to know what the building is there? From what I can see, it just looks like a shelter.

Afraid St Kilda is still throwing up new stuff that we like - and I'll add some LCL pics (yes operated by the RCT tonight ::)

Guess away, we do have a way of slipping 'unsubstantiated goodies' in as well, without getting too tied up with 100% certainty.

The only time we get upset is when, shall we say, 'conspiracy stuff' is presented as fact, and it does get short shrift if so presented, but that doesn't preclude good discussion somewhere in here, off the Main Site pages, which we like to think of as reasonably accurate, and relatively free from overly opinionated stuff.

Yes, Fox, you're right, there certainly was a base in Rhu. During the war there were flying boats based there. Not sure what type they were but it was a RAF base with airmen stationed there. I'd guess the aircraft were Sunderland Flying Boats. There were also army types stationed there just shortly after the war, around 1946-1948.

Wrong place Duguld, the Seaplane Base was a bit further east, and the site still survives today, operated by HMNB Clyde - Faslane.

Check the Main Site contents for details.

Could the site at Rhu used by the Army have been during the War years the Marine Aircrat Experimental Establishment referred to elsewhere in Secret Scotland? The Army base there (and I have no idea when it became an Army base) seemed from the road to consist primarily of a large hangar or (very large) shed.

Passerby

No... the MAEE site is the Seaplane Base mentioned above.

If you look at the aerial view on its page, and then look to the west past the boats moored at the marina, you will see another bay - this is one pinpointed by the lat/lon given above by The Fox.

It's just marked as the Rhu point on the MAEE page, and you need to zoom in on it to see the detail.

The pics of of the supply craft are now one the pages, plus info about the memorial to the wrecked RAF aircraft on the island.

I think the info may be getting exhausted, I am, from trying to fit it all onto the page - I think it breaks every unwritten 'rule' for formatting a page, but the mix of portrait and landscape originals, together with the related info, makes the layout ugly and disorganised otherwise, so it will just have to be tidied up as best as can be... once it looks as if there are no more surprises to be included :-/

Quoted from Apollo

Wrong place Duguld, the Seaplane Base was a bit further east, and the site still survives today, operated by HMNB Clyde - Faslane.
Check the Main Site contents for details.

Ach, i always thought that if one walked for five minutes out of Helensburgh one would come to Rhu, and that was where the big seaplanes were moored in the water during the war.  I think my problem is that i have the right seaplane base but the wrong village. Last time I was in Rhu, about 1998, I tried to buy a picture post-card and there wasn't one available anywhere... wonder if this had to do with security.

'Faslane" to me, was where they broke up the old Aquitania.

I doubt if security had anything to do with the lack of a postcard, even back in 1998 ordinary people had things called 'cameras' ;D

As a 'local', I would say that Rhu isn't rated as a tourist spot, although there are a few spots of historic interest (Henry Bell is buried there - provided my memory is working, I haven't checked). With postcards being a commercial venture, doubt any printer would bother. That said, I think sunny Helensburgh would have been the place to get one, assuming you literally meant you tried to buy one in Rhu itself.

We have tried to dig up enough info about the the breakers, Metal Industries at Faslane, but there's precious little material online, so there are only a few brief references in the Main Site so far :(

---

Back to St Kilda...

It took four days, but I finally managed to find the information about the final failure of the community that I knew existed, but couldn't remember the full detail of, having only come across it once, when it was first publicised a few years ago. The research is therefore relatively new, but strangely, although it would only take a few minutes to update all the popular web sites that provide information, and in some cases very detailed information, about the island, no-one seems to have bothered.

Guess we're different here, and the relevant findings have been inserted into our St Kilda page.

Briefly, while there can be little doubt that the encroachment of the modern world, tourism, money, changing economic and industrial environments, illness, and all the other causes currently making up the standard list of reasons would be enough to explain the demise, recent research has revealed that there was a much more dangerous, yet invisible, threat to the community's existence, and which would eventually have led to its end.

Thanks to their lifetime of sustenance on a seabird based diet, the local custom of eating and composting seabird waste, they were living on top of a build up of significant levels of contaminants such as lead, zinc and arsenic in the soil. Today, such land would be barred from development, and were homes have been built, the residents are moved out - and go look for someone to sue!

Rhu was active when I was at faslane and operating two LSL and to be honest I can think of nothing else they would be there for but to supply Kilda. The army base on benbecula out here on the islands is only 40 k from Kilda and there was a very large military presences, however there are not the port facilities on the West side of the islands to handle much shipping and with the sort of sea swell which constantly hits the west Rhu would be the best place for supplies to come from..... having typed this I am sure I remember that RHU did supply Kilda.

All done by helo now , civi one at that.

It certainly makes sense, since it would be as easy to send supplies to St Kilda as to Benbecula or the Uists, and there would be little point in stopping there en route to St Kilda (except for a rest).

Come to think of it, that's what our driver did when doing the delivery run to/from the range control. He even managed to get a bed there provided there was one going spare overnight.

With the Rhu info added, maybe somebody else that was involved will spot it and add something one day.

I'm currently listening to a story called The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, (1886), written by Fergus Hume, on BBC7.

You can find the whole book online at The University of Adelaide Library - Fergus Hume (1859-1932)

This was said to be a rival to the stories of Sherlock Holmes, but I think that's a bit too enthusiastic, as I keep dropping off while listening... (which should not be misconstrued as negative criticism of the story, just me).

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a ripping murder mystery novel was written in Melbourne in the 1880's by Fergus Hume and contains many descriptions of Melbourne life at that time.

The story starts next to the Burke & Wills statue outside the Scots Church. (The statue has since been shifted a number of times and is currently on the corner of Collins & Swanston Streets.) Two men get into a hansom cab and the driver takes them along St Kilda Road. One alights at Domain Road while the other continues through to St Kilda. On arrival, the driver finds the second passenger dead.

While I didn't notice it during earlier listening sessions, this time round I notice every mention of St Kilda made by the writer, and a number of streets in the are, which seems to much more the heart of the action, rather than Melbourne as noted in the quote above.

It's interesting to note that the Melbourne St Kilda was only named about 45 years before the story was written.

I don't like to sound too grumpy, but if you read "our" page about St Kilda, you'd find out all you needed to know, and how it got its name, and that there's no full stop in it, and that the St isn't an abbreviation for Saint, and.... :X

And it probably goes without saying (I hope) that there's no mention of the football connection (even if the team's site did provide some of the history).

Really, we have nearly 600 pages of goodies there now, and it is worth having a search for the lesser knows things ;)

I'm just impressed that someone else even knew the place existed ::)

I only spotted the BBC's new series, Britain's Lost World, shortly before it was due to air at 21:00 tonight, or I'd have mentioned it earlier, as it was billed as:

1/3. Historian Dan Snow, naturalist Steve Backshall and wildlife enthusiast Kate Humble set out to solve the mysteries of St Kilda, the only British World Heritage Site nominated for both its extraordinary history and its wildlife. Home to seabirds and seals, the islands are a place of mystery. Until just eighty years ago, St Kilda was inhabited, and those people lived in an extraordinary way. When they suddenly abandoned their homes, they left behind a place full of secrets. Who were the strange and remarkable St Kildans? Why did they leave? And can St Kilda's amazing wildlife survive in the modern world?

In this first programme, Steve collects food the St Kildan way - by abseiling down a 400 foot cliff; Kate finds out how this season's baby puffins are getting on; and Dan discovers the islands' Viking history. But when Steve and Dan set out to row to the island of Boreray, plans go awry

It was a bit irritating as the programme started, with repeated references to "The mystery of why the St Kildans left" - it's not a mystery, and never was, not even the day the islanders left.

Facts appeared to go out the window when they spotted the six modern refurbishment cottages, and they asserted that one of the problems was the zinc roofs and glass windows which wouldn't have lasted or been repairable when damages, as the material was not locally available. Wonder who let them away with that one? The roofs in question are in fact only a few years old - the real roofs on the buildings would have been natural, made of wood covered with layers of heather turfs, then thatched and held down by a net weighted with stones.

Seeing the weather change that brought the Coastguard in to extract one of the team was a good example of the conditions endured there.

They've manage to avoid the base so far.

I wasn't  impressed with the programme either!

Aww... it had its good point.

The six hour trip in an open boat was better than slipping over in a helicopter or cruiser, and was accompanied by Kate Humble losing her breakfast.

I mentioned the Coastguard safety callout in light of the weather change from sun to showers, which the islanders would have had to contend with, and while the trip in rowing boat  declined into farce, it did also illustrate how vital a good boat was, as their example fell apart in little more than calm seas.

I was more than impressed by the soil analysis, confirming the toxin build-up in the land, and carried out in a few seconds by a hand-held gizmo stuck in a hole in the ground.

More fun coming next week in part 2.

For those not up to speed, the base used to allow civilian visitors but this ended with the so-called terrorist hype, and visitors are discouraged. They used to be able to use the facilities - the Puff Inn - but that ended recently, and the only circumstances where civilians will be entertained will be a medical emergency.

QinetiQ are credited on the programme, but the MoD might have asked the programme not to include the camp or radar stations. We'll see in the later content.

If you read our small print you will find a reference to the warden's warning to visitors, alerting them to the dangers of the cliffs and not to wear waterproof trousers. If you trip and fall wearing these on the steep, wet, grassy slopes, then your next stop will be the sea, after you have gone shooting over the 400 metre cliff edge.

Some place, but you have to wonder about its viability and the mental approach of those who lived there. I refer not to any particular social aspect, merely the fact that just to survive there you would have to spend most of your waking hours organising food, either to eat right away, or to store for consumption in winter.

This, as noted earlier, was one of the ultimate problems, when the church got its claws on the islanders and had them in church when they should have been working in the fields, so reducing their already depleted food stocks even further.

I don't remember this, but it seems a fishing boat ran aground on Hirta back in February, and is in the news again as plans are made to decide its fate.

There were worries that it may have brought rats to the island, which could have been a major problem, but it looks as if there were none.

You almost wonder how they managed to hit the island, in the middle of nowhere.

Engine failure during a storm which blew it onto rocks as far as I remember.  The island was monitored for months by SNH ( I think ) but no traces of rats were found.  This despite fishermen saying fishing boats do not attract  rats in any case so was probably another waste of public money.  It was a Spanish boat.

I should have thought to post this warning earlier, but got distracted as usual.

If anyone is following the series, be aware that Part 3 of 3 does not arrive a week after the Part 2 of 3!

It airs of Friday evening at 19:30 on BBC1, on June 27, the day after Part 2 was shown.

There was only the briefest of mentions after Part 2, and I almost forgot to check the details.

To say that the Rhu base operated from a beach is incorrect as it was a pukka base witha large storage warehouse slipway and jetty.  This facility is now the Press Center for HMNB Faslane according to a notice on the gates.

Dinnae forget context...

The item follows on from the LCL stories, and I'm pretty sure they'll have operated their runs from the beach rather than the stores, but mentioning the buildings would do no harm.

What we probably want it some meat on the Rhu facility history, and its own page to refer to.

The Press Centre story is unrelated to the St Kilda story, and is already included in the HMNB Clyde naval base page, which it relates to.

I have stuck in a latest news item at the end of the page. Admin might want to move it to what might be regarded as a more appropriate place.

Well spotted :)

Done and dusted.

All part of the service.

I see St Kilda is back in the news again today (the Scottish Daily Express and the Daily Record)  with an article asking for volunteers to sew cotton bags to help save baby puffins. Apparently every year loads of Pufflings (baby puffins) are disorientated by the lights of the defence installation and wander inland instead of towards the water.  They need to be rounded up and the bags are used to transport therm safely.

I have to say I had to check that it was not the 1st of April

The Daily Record I can understand, but I thought the Daily Express had a bit more integrity left.

Certainly in the past, the base commander and the NTS worked closely together, and the light at the base were turned off during the breeding season to prevent the very disorientation these two esteemed pillars of truth and virtue are claiming.

Somebody has to be wrong, or once again, somebody's found a cheap way to sell a few more papers.

Don't be so disparaging - it was on the Beeb too!

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7793919.stm

Since I'll never see the papers, I can a least say the BBC got it right... Property manager Susan Bainsaid:

Quoted Text

"Our staff take great care to keep any lights to a minimum. Despite this, we always seem to find some stray pufflings around the staff housing."

;)

Hi, everyone. I am a complete novice in here, this being my first post. I spotted this thread and as I was working as a Civil Servant for MoD on Benbecula I was interested, i was only on Benbecula for about 6 weeks during the summer but I do recall that. Yes the LCTs sailed from Rhu. The stores they were carrying were for the most part building material / plant to allow the construction of the buildings on St. Kilda. They also obviously carried other “technical military equipment as well. I think the builder out on St. Kilda was W. & J. R. Watson from Edinburgh?  All or most of the workers were ferried to and from the Island by LCTs
The newspapers of the time carried a story about the first time any of the “builders” who were tendering for the work were sent out, in a LCT as it happens. A storm blew up and the LCT could not make landfall on St. Kilda so had to spend a shall we say very, very uncomfortable time running for shelter up to Lewis to find a bay somewhere. Of the four or five “contractors “ who hoped to tender for the work all but one pulled out instantly? Cannot imagine what put them off?
On Benbecula I was in charge of a sea ramp that would allow LCTs to be “berthed” up until then they beached, off loaded. And sailed off on the next tide.
I recall seeing LCTs on Benbecula; the ones I saw did not have “prows” simply the landing ramp. As I recall the LCTs regularly came into Benbecula, I do not know why?
As for the reasons why the original islanders were removed, that is a long and harrowing tale, there are several books and at least one video, I believe that there may be a display in the Kelvin Grove Museum? But I am not positive

Welcome in builder...

And thanks for those details.

The forum discussion thread is often only the tip of iceberg that is the Main Site of Secret Scotland, and this is the case for St Kilda, which has spawned four pages so far.

The important one for your purposes being St Kilda Military Installations

As the time given for the run by LCT from Benbecula to St Kild was 10 hours, apart from possibly organising the stores and maybe picking up more items and personnel, I think it's pretty safe to assume the stop at Benbecula was really just to make the journey bearable ;)

The story of the evacuation is summarised on the St Kilda page itself, together with more recent fiindings about the imminent demise that would have struck the community had it remained.

I'm trying hard to think of a specific St Kilda item in Kelvingrove, but I can't recall anything devoted to the story, although there may be some artefacts or paintings related to it that I can't recall. Then again, if you're referring to the "reborn" Kelvingrove after the revamp a few years ago, then I'm afraid I'm just not up to speed on the revised format of the place, and probably never will be.

Looks like your trip managed to prove the legend of the untameable St Kilda weather :)

Welcome builder.  It is good to have info from people who were actually there.

I had an enquiry about the radar installations on St Kilda from then NTS last year.  I wonder if anyone here can help them?

Quoted Text

>     I am looking for relevant sites to compare with the installation on St Kilda (1957-present) in order to better understand the surviving buildings there and how they fit into the wider military history of post WWII Scotland. Do you have any advice on possible sites, texts and sources? Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

>
>     The current installation which is still operated by QinetiQ
>     includes two radar stations remote operated from South Uist as
>     well as a diesel power station, barracks and a group of engineer’s
>     garages and sheds. The question I’m interested in is finding other
>     similar installations of the period and or type.
>
>     I could probably dig up more detailed information from the current
>     staff but I’m keen to explore lots of different ways of finding
>     things out!

>

Strange question if it came from the NTS.

The radar works with South Uist, not remotely, as far I'm aware, hence the full staff on St Kilda.

All the history, and their own very detailed St Kilda web site describes a very close relationship with the MoD, and a great deal of data if all the links within it are followed through.

The place has been described as being updated on a number of occasions, so what is there now would only be partially representative of the original period, and anything that is retired is removed and the land restored, so there will be little to find in that respect.

The MoD and the NTS are the only residents since then, and the staff are largely seasonal and may be little help (especially as the NTS just now cut down its seasonal staff! so apart from finding someone who worked on the original install, and I only have one online source with no contact details or response to any approaches I've made, there may be precious little in terms of other sources :(

I think they were particularly interested in whether any other sites were similar.

I asked various people but they are mainly interested in RAF radar.  I used to know some people who worked there twenty or thirty years ago but lost touch with them.  Historically it is complicated because it has changed ownership a number of times.  I seem to remember there were the three sites involved, they optically tracked at the launch and that helped the radar lock onto the rocket.  From what I was told they often lost it before the radar could take over.  There is an old tower at Clettravel which I was told was associated with this optical system.

I'm tempted to think they would be better hunting down ex-employees of Racal, Decca etc, the companies that would have built, installed and commissioned the original tracking gear.

The MoD would have set the tender criteria for the contract, but it would have been installed by one of those system builders, who would then have trained Army personnel to operate it.

I don't understand what you mean by changed ownership. The RAF built the place, not for themselves, but for the British Army. I've only ever seen St Kilda and South Uist referred to as an Army range. The RAF provides support facilities to it through RAF Benbecula, and RAF Benbecula itself was a Cold War tracking and warning radar site covering the North Atlantic, but was not actually concerned with the missile tracking, although (to steal your phrase) is historically complicated because it did and does provide support facilities for the range, as per the recent £500,000 upgrade at the airfield in readiness for Eurofighter missile testing.

The Cold War operation is gone now, replaced by an RRH (Remote Radar Head), plumbed into the same system as the RRH at RAF Buchan (or near, to be pedantic), all that's left there now that Buchan has been closed and turned into a cosy wee housing development.

There will be nothing interesting left soon!

I'm about try and track down any online info about the South Uist range, but have never come across any references to South Clettraval (which is a busy wee spot with other installations), confusingly located on North Uist just help with consistency, so I'll keep an extra eye out for that one. (Or I will if I can can get some functional computing before I lose the will to live at the moment :( ).

From memory the staff were originally MOD civilian staff.

I think they became RCA possibly Marconi first then Serco.  It was a few years ago!

More recently I was up at Clettraval quite a number of times but never had anything to do with the MOD site, I think I only ever passed civilian vehicles on the road.

The staff alternated between the three sites.

Yes, unless there is weapons involvement now, staff will be civilian from companies like QinetiQ or SerCo.

MoD civilian staff? Almost sounds like a contradiction, especially in the 1950s and 1960s :)

I'd forgotten about RCA, that goes back a bit, Marconi doesn't ring a bell on that particular type of kit, more like Ferranti, and tied in with BAe and/or GEC for aircraft radar in my mind, but that's addled at best :)

As I recall, it all got silly as BAe-GEC-Marconi-Ferranti (and any bits of Racal-Decca and any other players of the same era that were left around)  all but played musical chairs toward the end of the last decade, and all but disappeared up their own backsides. At least EKCO was well out of it by then, or it might have been dragged in as well, just to make up numbers.

The Ferranti labs I used to visit in Edinburgh are gone, and the Ferranti factory which was once a bit of a landmark with its dome is also gone, together with all that was around it.

Quoted from Apollo

Yes, unless there is weapons involvement now, staff will be civilian from companies like QinetiQ or SerCo.

MoD civilian staff? Almost sounds like a contradiction, especially in the 1950s and 1960s :)

I'd forgotten about RCA, that goes back a bit, Marconi doesn't ring a bell on that particular type of kit, more like Ferranti, and tied in with BAe and/or GEC for aircraft radar in my mind, but that's addled at best :)

As I recall, it all got silly as BAe-GEC-Marconi-Ferranti (and any bits of Racal-Decca and any other players of the same era that were left around)  all but played musical chairs toward the end of the last decade, and all but disappeared up their own backsides. At least EKCO was well out of it by then, or it might have been dragged in as well, just to make up numbers.

The Ferranti labs I used to visit in Edinburgh are gone, and the Ferranti factory which was once a bit of a landmark with its dome is also gone, together with all that was around it.

Could well have been Ferranti, certainly an oldish British company was there for a time.  They changed name but just carried on in the same jobs and paycheck arriving with a different name on it.

The MOD has always had quite a lot of civilian staff.  Most would have been absorbed into various civilian companies.  I think Serco was perhaps the first to get involved in lots of different unrelated activities.  

Bit addled here also!

Even though it seem I put my foot in my mouth regarding South Clettraval, it does have a smile across it :)

Almost the first record I opened was the old CND note for South Clettraval, and really, really, should have remembered reading this, as they describe it as "Similar to St Kilda" - now there's a surprise :)

It's not particularly relevant, it's just that I should just have twigged to it sooner - even if is now over a years since I last had chance to look at the old files :B

There's not much, but shot in 2000, you get a glimpse of some of the kit in the South Uist range control, and the kitchen units in the background  :)

From Am Baile

Passing Places - The Real Outer Hebrides. April 2000, South Uist. Rocket Range & swans

HMAV Andalsnes (4097) affectionately known as the old '97 also did the St. Kilda runs.
She was based along side Helensburgh Pier from August 1966 through to October 1966. After October it was considered too rough for the LCT's to do the trips so a trawler took over (who's name escapes me). Some good nights were had in the Imp's, The Clack'n'Arran to name but a couple. There was also a Hotel close by called the Ardencaple which at that time had a very lively folk club.
The skipper on the 97' at the time was Captain Melville, nice guy but prone to sea sickness. The number one was Arnold Crux. The signalman was Bab's Blakelock, the REME guy was Jonny Leadbetter.
The trips took in Stornaway as well as Benbecula and St. Kilda. We signed Capt Melville up for a trip on an Icelandic Trawler in Stornaway but he refused to go.
The LCT's home base was Gunwharf in Pompey, this is now a shopping precinct but the is a plaque telling the story of 20LCT Support Squadron tucked round the corner. When Gunwharf was full (it could only take 2 LCT's we tied up on the buoys out in the South Trot. That could be fun on a cold winters night.
When not up in Scotland the LCT's regular run was to Antwerp to drop off the new Chieftain Tanks for the boy's in Germany. The return trip was with the clapped out Conquers (and a few swiftly written off Chieftains) One trip was a bit rough and we stood still for 22 hours in the middle of the North Sea trying to get home. Mick the cough (the cook) took great delight in serving up greasy pork chops that trip.
A year in the Gulf based at HMS Jufair aboard HMAV Arrezzo followed from June 1967 to July 1968.
Hope it fills in a little info for those interested.
regards an ex 4097 erk

Thanks for sharing.

It's nice to catch some real detail from from those at the sharp end, or blunt end on an LCT - 22 hours stuck in the North Sea going nowhere must have been a nightmare.

And a skipper prone to seasickness :)

Hi all, newbie here.
Stumbled across the forum whilst I was googling something. Just wanted to let you all know that I spent 3 very happy years attached to 20th Maritime Regiment including the summer of '70 stationed in Scotland at Helensburgh where one of our many tasks was the fortnightly run to St. Kilda. I have a few pictures of my time with the LCT's so if anyone is interested then let me know and I will dig them out.
Cheers.
soldierboy.

Pics would be great for the record if they are available, thank you. It's what we're trying to preserve.

Don't forget, the Forum is just the discussion for the Main Site, with the St Kilda pages such as St Kilda Military Installations

You'll find more for the non-military content, and also the South Uist missile range itself, in the news just now, and which has a page being written at the moment.