Loch Ewe and the Arctic Convoys

Loch Ewe is so enormous that the casual traveller may not immediately recognise it as a sea loch. Most visitors pass its southern end on their way to Inverewe Garden, seeing only a broad expanse of water before continuing around the North Coast 500. Follow either shore, however, and the geography begins to reveal itself. The entrance narrows towards Cove, while the surrounding hills create a deep, sheltered anchorage with direct access to the North Atlantic. During the Second World War, those natural advantages transformed this remote corner of Wester Ross into one of Britain’s most important naval bases.

Merchant ships gathered here before joining their Royal Navy escorts and sailing into the Arctic towards Murmansk and Archangel. At times as many as 95 vessels lay within the loch, carrying tanks, aircraft, vehicles, ammunition, fuel and food needed to help keep the Soviet Union fighting Nazi Germany. Beyond the shelter of Loch Ewe waited German aircraft, U-boats and warships, together with ice, violent seas and temperatures cold enough to freeze spray across a ship’s deck. Across the Arctic convoy campaign, more than 3,000 sailors died and over 100 merchant and naval vessels were lost.

The war also transformed life ashore. Poolewe became a command centre, Aultbea developed into the main operational base, military camps appeared around the loch and the surrounding communities became part of a restricted area. Roads were improved, the bridge over the River Ewe was reconstructed for heavy military traffic, and the loch was protected by coastal guns, anti-aircraft batteries, barrage balloons, minefields and a defensive boom stretched across its entrance. It must have felt like an extraordinary intrusion into communities that had previously depended upon crofting and fishing.

Today, silence has reclaimed most of Loch Ewe, but the war has not disappeared. At Cove, gun emplacements and observation posts still overlook the narrow entrance through which the convoys sailed, while elsewhere around the shore remain fragments of camps, harbours and military buildings. The naval connection also continues through the fuel depot on the eastern shore, which still supplies Royal Navy and NATO vessels. Loch Ewe may now appear peaceful, isolated and even beautiful, but once you understand what assembled here, the empty water never looks quite so empty again.

To learn more, book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.