Northern Lighthouse Board Operational Base

Located on Gallanach Road, a quarter-mile (0.5 km) west of the centre of Oban in Argyll and Bute, the Operational Base of the Northern Lighthouse Board was first established in 1904 as a supplementary base to the Board's principal engineering depot at Granton in Edinburgh. Granton closed in 1975 and operations moved to Leith. Realising the majority of lights are located in the West of Scotland, the Board funded a £4.2 million redevelopment in 2000 to turn the buoy yard in Oban into a multifunctional support base. The facilities include a berth for the Board's two lightships (NLV Pharos and NLV Pole Star), maintenance workshops, and a pad for landing and refuelling helicopters. The ships and helicopters are used to deploy personnel and materials to supply and maintain the Board's lighthouses around Scotland and the Isle of Man. The ships also install and remove beacons and buoys, which are maintained, painted and repaired in Oban. The base is also home to the Board's Engineering Support and Test Facility and is computer-linked to their Headquarters on George Street in Edinburgh. There were once engineering workshops in the basement of the Edinburgh Headquarters, but these were transferred to Oban in 2018.


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