Building into the millennium Shoreworks manager Howard Richings reaches the final leg of his epic voyage - travelling from Aith, in the Shetland Islands, to Eyemouth on the Scottish mainland.It is appropriate that we commence the final leg of this epic circumnavigation at the northernmost limit of the RNLI's domain - the Shetland Islands. When it comes to displays of raw wave power there can be few areas to rival coasts of these islands.

Muckle Flugga, just off the northern tip of Unst, with its lighthouse built by David Stevenson in the 1850s, obstinately defies the elements that can throw solid water over the 200ft rock with its white brick tower. An observer on the adjacent GOOft cliffs of Herma Ness, if not blown over, must also dodge the aggressive attentions of the bonxies (Arctic Skuas).

Swooping out of the mist to protect their exposed moorland nests, these birds can make the sea seem a safer bet. But enough of dawdling - we must set forth southwards by road and ferry.

Aith, nestling at the head of a small bay of the same name, is still exposed enough to require its own substantial breakwater - constructed in 1986 - to provide a sheltered mooring for the station's allweather lifeboat.

Plans are complete for a new, modern shore facility and work should be well in hand by the coming summer.

Some 20 miles southeast, in the shelter of Bressay, lies the town of Lerwick with its thriving harbour.

Oil revenues have funded new developments and examples of modern architecture have appeared amidst the solid stone of the older buildings. One of these - the Old Tolbooth - will hopefully soon be the lifeboat crew's new home. Plans have been prepared for the restoration of this notable Georgian building and it is hoped to have work in hand by the spring.

While January in Lerwick was particularly cold this year, Shetlanders have a festival designed to banish the chill. Up HellyAa has its origins in Viking traditions. This year there were particularly strong connections with the lifeboat crew as one of their number was Guizer Jar (Chief Viking).

After a full day of visiting around the town, the Viking squads marched with flaming torches to the park below the Town Hall where the centre piece of the parade, the replica Viking galley, met its flaming end as soon as Guizer Jar had disembarked - no time to hang around with 48 squads of Vikings with torches at the ready.

There were rumours that a little drinking accompanied the celebrations but we were unable to find anybody sober enough to verify this before departing several days later.

The Orkney Islands present a much more gentle landscape than their northern cousins, but sea conditions around the rugged coasts provide plenty of hazards for the unwary sailor and justify three lifeboat stations. Kirkwall was early in the currentmodernisation programme, with its shore facility building opened in 1990 and extended in 1996.

The station's Severn class ALB lies alongside the pier and plans are in hand to improve the berth with a new pontoon system.

Stromness can be reached via a pleasant 18-mile road journey or a considerably longer sea passage. Visitors arriving on the ferry from Scrabster now have only a short walk to the lifeboat station's recently completed new facilities in the renovated harbour board office building.

A relatively short journey across Hoy Sound and past the light on Cava and through Weddel Sound brings us to Longhope Brilliant blue skies have always accompanied my previous visits and these are preserved in a photograph showing the slipway station in its old red livery with yellow irises in flower alongside.

Times have moved on and although it is hoped that the old boathouse will be preserved and provide a home for the renovated Thomas McCunn, the station's Arun class ALB now lies afloat and a new crew building stands solidly on the main pier of the harbour. A new berth and protective breakwater should soon follow.

It is about two hours by ferry from Stromness to the harbour at Scrabster - home of an active fishing fleet and the only lifeboat on the north coast of mainland Scotland - Thurso A recent deal with the harbour trust saw the demise of the old slipway boathouse and the construction of a new shore facility during the summer of 2001. The final act of the station's makeover will be a new sheltered berth that should finally be forthcoming this summer.

Departing to the east, Dunnet Head marks both the northernmost point of mainland Britain and the western limit of the Pentiand Firth with its infamous tidal races - it is only in recent times that modern high powered lifeboats could guarantee being able to traverse the Firth in contrary weather conditions.

Duncansby Head lies at the eastern end of the Firth and marks another key turning-point in our journey. Wick, just south of the broad sweep of Sinclair's Bay, gives cover to the eastern approaches of the Pentiand Firth and to a long stretch of coastline to the southwest. In 1995 the lifeboat left its slipway boathouse to lie afloat at a new berth and a new shore facility building was constructed and opened in 1997.

As with many things in life the simple ones take the longest and the parking problem still remained in January 2002.

Beneath us lies the Great Glen fault; still occasionally active but formed back in the Devonian period some 370m years ago when two ancient continents collided marking the final demise of the lapetus Ocean and forcing the northern part of Scotland into its current position in relation to the rest of Britain. Embryonic Britain, however, still had far to travel being somewhere just south of the equator and enjoying desert conditions, the present day results of which are seen in the red sandstones that grace many of Scotland's older buildings.

Following the fault line we pass the light at Tarbat Ness and enter Cromarty Firth and dock at Invergordon. Later in the year we might have had to share our visit with parties of tourists from the cruise liners which regularly call - a possible connection with the proximity of a number of distilleries? The station's Trent class lifeboat lies alongside one of the harbour's piers. Soon after our departure the ten-year-old crew building, which is supported on piles over the water, survived the unwelcome attentions of a large, wayward barge.

Much newer is the innovative boathouse at Kessock where we arrive after navigating the narrows between Chanory Point and Fort George. Originally established as a D class station in 1993, the station was subsequently allocated an Atlantic 75. The transformation was completed in 2001 with the completion of the new octagonal boathouse within the shadow of the Kessock bridge. Rumour has it that construction was kept under observation by the dolphins that take a special interest in this area.

Buckle, with its busy fishing harbour and boatyard, lies just to the east of the Spey estuary. Its new boathouse and integral ALB berth were completed in 1995.

We are now getting well into the fishing communities of the Scottish east coast, where lifeboat stations become more closely spaced, supported by the numerous communities whose histories and economies are bound to the sea.

The coastline becomes more rugged as we cross Cullen Bay and pass by Portsoy and Whitehills before homing in onthe lighthouse at Macduff Conditions in the harbour require the lifeboat to have the ability to launch from a number of locations. To achieve this, the vessel is permanently stowed on a special launching truck with its own integral hydraulic lifting system. The new boathouse, completed in 1999, had to accommodate this special rig.

Small bays and rugged headlands continue until we pass Rosehearty, where sand returns before we round Kinnaird Head to the welcome of Fraserburgh's twin lighthouses. The lifeboat went afloat in 1997 when a new berth was completed. Crew and support facilities remain in the old slipway boathouse, which has seen some modernisation with more to come.

Our course now takes its final major change of direction as we swing around Rattray Head and make due south for mainland Scotland's most easterly point and Europe's busiest whitefish landing port - Peterhead.

Peterhead harbour has developed significantly in recent years to provide facilities to match those of its continental European competitors.

In 1999 the harbour commissioners and the RNLI cooperated to mutual advantage.

An afloat berth was created for the ALB and the port's pilot boat and new shore facilities provided for the lifeboat crew. The site of the old slipway station was then made available to facilitate further development of the port.

Under freezing conditions and heavy snow it is difficult to appreciate fully the many miles of sandy beaches that lead into Aberdeen from the north and give the city a splendid recreational area which can easily be missed by a visitor to the Granite City who does not explore beyond the town centre and docks area. Two lifeboats serve Aberdeen - a Severn lies afloat and a D class resides in the new boathouse. completed in 1997.

A visit to the excellent Maritime Museum adjacent to the inner harbour was a humbling experience. A fully detailed model of an offshore oil production platform soars through several floors of the museum; confirmation that modern engineers have lost none of the ingenuity from which their professional name derives.

Our course is now south-southeast following a relatively straight, if more rugged coastline to Stonehaven and onward past the remains of Dunottar Castle. The mass of the Grampian Mountains with their forests and peaks soaring to over 4,000ft lie inland and are the source of many rivers draining eastwards. These include the North and South Esk rivers with their estuaries bracketing Montrose's links and beaches.

Montrose was one of the first stations in Scotland to be modernised, back in 1989, Since then there have been further works related to the housing and launching of the ILB and a new pontoon berth for the ALB was completed last year. Siltation is a continuing problem in the harbour and further dredging is planned for later in the year.

Long Craig, Lang Craig, Meg's Craig and the Deil's Head all lie on the short haul to Arbroath, home to one of only three slipwaylaunched Mersey lifeboats and a D class ILB. The old slipway boathouse was adapted in 1993 for the Mersey but siltation was an ongoing problem only recently alleviated by dredging and an extension of the slipway.

It is not siltation but erosion that is the problem further south where the dunes of Budden Ness are in retreat, much to the consternation of the army, who lost several ranges in the 1980s.

2001 was a year of major change for Broughty Ferry, which lies on the north shore of the Firth of Tay just east of the city of Dundee. A substantial new piled jetty was constructed to provide a sheltered berth, boarding and refuelling facilities for the station's new Trent class lifeboat and the old slipway boathouse modernised to provide an excellent new training room and housing for the co-located ILB.

When in spate the river often carries substantial debris including tree trunks and, in winter, ice floes can cause severe loading on any structure that protrudes into the river, as well as acting as efficient paint strippers on the lifeboat.

Just around Fife Ness, at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, lies Anstruther with its conventionally housed Mersey. The-original boathouse was very much in the traditional solid masonry style and, over the last 10 years, this has progressively been developed firstto house the Mersey in 1991 and then to improve the crew facilities in 1995.

Legend has it that King Alexander III, riding home one dark and stormy night in 1286, inadvertently rode over the cliffs to his death near Kinghorn Storm surges from the North Sea occasionally wash over the promenade and require storm boards to be put in place to protect the doors of the boathouse that was opened in 1995. Let's hope that global warming does not proceed too fast, otherwise the services of King Canute may be required.

Just west of Edinburgh lies Queensferry with its Atlantic ILB.

The boathouse, completed in 1989, is overshadowed by a daunting neighbour - the muchpainted Forth Bridge. Behind the lifeboat station is the Hawes Inn with its rooms named after famous people. On an earlier visit I found myself in the Robert Louis Stevenson suite. It is ironic that this room should have a view of such a famous engineering feat when, as a member of the previously mentioned dynasty of Scottish engineers, RLS should have rejected his early engineering training and made his fame in the literary world - Treasure Island being published in 1883 a year after work started on the bridge.

Returning along the southern shores of the firth we head for the lighthouse on Fidra and then into the ancient harbour at North Berwick. The story of the station's current boathouse is complicated, its having originally been built by the RNLI in the 19th century, sold out of service in the 1920s then re-purchased and restored in 1992 after life as the Victoria Cafe.

With Bass Rock to port we pass St Baldred's Boat and, a short while later, his Cradle before making a cautious entry into Dunbar harbour. Dunbar is currently posing an operational dilemma for the RNLI. The old red sandstone lifeboat house stands beside the harbour and is home to the D class ILB while the all-weather lifeboat lies afloat a few miles down the A1 in the Torness Nuclear Power Station harbour. Depth restrictions in Dunbar harbour have put unacceptable launching restriction on the Trent class lifeboat. Various solutions have been considered and, at the time of our visit, discussions were still in hand on alternative permanent solutions at Dunbar and Torness.

After initially having the road and railway for company, we bear east along a more remote coastline to Wheat Stack and sight the St Abbs light. The St Abbs inshore lifeboat shares the harbour with many prospective customers. On a busy day something akin to an air-traffic control system seems warranted to track the dive boats. The slipway boathouse has been modified several times over the years to cater for the different classes of lifeboat. In 1998 the crew facilities were improved and work was in hand during this winter on the slipway itself.

And so we depart for our last destination. It is just a short haul across Coldingham Bay whose shifting sands are a continual cause of problems at Eyemouth A fishing port with a long history, the town lies on a section of the coast without a natural harbour refuge. On an October day in 1881 this was tragically highlighted.

The morning dawned fine and clear and the local fishing fleets set sail - before the end of that day 40 vessels had foundered in a sudden, disastrous storm: 194 men were lost leaving behind 93 widows and 267 orphans. One of the results of that tragedy was an increase in the number of barometers located in harbours to give some warning of approaching storms.

The lifeboat used to launch from a slipway near the harbour entrance but has been afloat for a number of years. In 1992 a new building was provided after much negotiation with the planning authority but, as is often the case, this resulted in a compromise and pressure is now on for an extension to give greater space for the storage of the crews' personal protective gear and a bigger training room - a little job to take back to the office.

To complete the trip we return to England and Berwick-Upon- Tweed - a good opportunity to reflect upon was has happened since we set out so hopefully in 1997. During those 41/2 years 40 boathouses have either been completely or substantially rebuilt, 18_other major berth and quay works completed and many other improvements made to stations.

Also, five new divisional bases have been designed and built - they were hardly a glimmer in the RNLI's eye when we set out.

Oh yes, then there is the small matter of the four new Thames lifeboat stations and the new inland waterway stations. FSB2, the 25knot replacement for the Tyne class slipway lifeboat, has slipped from the drawing board into the water and work is well in hand preparing for the building and civil engineering works to support it. Cromer and Barrow were just a start - think how much more we could have done if we hadn't gone swanning off around the coast..