In 1994, in Cadgwith Bay off the Lizard in Cornwall, a fishing boat unfortunately sank, and its two crew unfortunately perished.

This happened soon after many Coastguard lookouts had been closed down, and such was the depth of local feeling following the tragedy, the local community decided to establish a volunteer watch over that section of the coastline, and the National Coastwatch Institution was established.

National Coastwatch has gone on to establish 60 lookout stations around England and Wales, from Fleetwood in the North West, through Wales, and around the English coastline to Filey, in the North East.

More are planned, based on information supplied by our colleagues at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the RNLI, and will be established as quickly as funding permits and staff can be recruited.

For a full history of the Charity, and individual stories of the establishment of each station, please visit our. NCI Living History website. On that site you can not only read about, and view pictures of, our lookouts and crews, you can also help us create our own story by uploading any photos, images or documents you may have of specific stations, people or events.

Why not take a look now?

During 2024 we celebrated our 30th anniversary. A number of events were held at our Lookout stations around the country. The main event being a flag relay starting at NCI Fleetwood, the most north-westerly of our stations, and finishing at NCI Filey in the north west.

The flag included an embroidered list of all of our stations.