Maritime & Admiralty matters

From kayaks and canoes, paddle steamers to nuclear submarines, Holy Loch has possibly been touched by the widest range of nautical vessels.

Robertson's Yard

Robertson's boat yard opened in 1876 and went on to deliver a range of yachts and boats, including America's Cup challengers, vessels for the admiralty but most of all, they were renowned for their wooden racing yachts.
Today, Robertson's yard is known as Holy Loch Marina. The marina now serves a range of pleasure vessels, yachts, sailing boats, training ships and an extensive variety of boats & nuclear submarines*.
*advance arrival notice of nuclear submarines required.



Sailing Club

Holy Loch sailing club provides for a range of sailing and water / paddle sports. Supporting grass roots newcomers to sailing, and hosting a range of events throughout the season, including the annual Polaris regatta, the sailing club is an active group and recognised by the RYA for training acheivements.

Holy Loch Marina and Holy Loch Port

Formally Robertson's yard, today Holy Loch Marina is a fully serviced marina supporting private, pleasure and commercial vessels.
The Holy Loch Marina has vast range of berths and pontoons for pleasure and passenger craft with a variety of support services on site. Additionally, there is a commercial cargo pier supporting larger cargo vessels with loading equipment for timber / logging cargo also on site.


Holy Loch AIS station

Holy Loch AIS receiving station, feeding live vessel movements into various online sites and apps. Marine Traffic info here, also uploading to Shipplotter and Shipfinder.

The Royal Navy, United States Navy and Nuclear Submarines

ON BOARD THE SUBMARINE DEPOT SHIP HMS FORTH, HOLY LOCH, SCOTLAND, 1942 © IWM (TR 533) Holy Loch is possibly most recognised as a post war nuclear submarine base, however, conventional submarines of the Royal Navy were based here during WWII, long before the SUBRON 14 attachment of the US Navy in 1961.

HMS Forth, a submarine depot ship, arrived during WWII supporting various British Royal Navy submarines for trials, exercises and periods of storage throughout the second world war.
1961 saw the arrival of the US Navy and Holy Loch became home to Refit Site 1 with USS Proteus being the first tender to arrive along with floating dry dock Los Alamos.
In 1992 tender, USS Simon Lake, departed Holy Loch bringing an end to more than 30 years of the United States Navy Submarine Force Atlantic being based in Scotland.



The basing of Polaris Nuclear submarines in Holy Loch didn't come without controversy and demonstrations from various bodies, not least CND. However, there was a clear impact to the local economy which some state the area has not recovered from since the US Navy's departure.
Today there is little to show of the lochs past connection with either nation's naval assets, however, (for better or worse) there is a legacy of this past that lives on, both locally and across the Atlantic.
Holy Loch now houses a busy marina for a range of pleasure craft and sailing boats, there is a commercial pier regularly used for transporting timber felled around the area. And the loch is active with a range of pleasure craft from paddle boards, kayaks through sail boats, motor boats, to RIB's and visiting cruise ships and paddle steamers!