The Club

Inverness Rowing Club, originally called Rogie Falls Boat Club, was conceived in an Inverness pub in 1987 by a group of 9, largely novice, rowers.  This intrepid band sourced a Donoratico VIII from Sons of the Thames RC who needed to dispose of it to make room for a new boat.  It needed significant refurbishment but after the application of substantial amounts of epoxy it was ready to go and was launched on to the Caledonian Canal (12th Dec, 1987) for the clubs first outing.  The club originally boated from Caley Marina, with the boat stored some 300m, and a stile, away in the garden of Jim Hogan.  Despite these hurdles three months, and only a handful of outings, later the crew would find themselves grappling with the much more lively water of the Thames as they took on the Head of the River Race on the famous tideway course.  Following the completion of this adventure Inverness Rowing Club was formally established in April 1988.

Extract from the 1988 HORR results

The club gathered momentum quickly and further boats were acquired. With the help of donations from Caledonian Motors (Allan Hampton) a Colley coxed four was bought, which club members raced in the World Masters Regatta at Strathclyde Park in the summer of 1988.  Further members were recruited through ‘come and try’ events and the first Head of the Caledonian Canal was held in the November of 1988.  The first running of this event involved the opening of the Tomnahurich swing bridge for each division to give a full 6km head course!  Further donations provided a second hand Burgashell single scull, from IRC Hon President John Stevenson, and a second hand Burgashell single scull and a double scull, from Allan Garraway.

A second Donoratico, aquired fron Glasgow University Boat Club, at a training camp on Loch Laggan

In 1992, and now with 30 members, the club moved to its present boathouse which was built just south of Tomnahurich Bridge after a mammoth fund-raising effort.  We continue to grow as a club and hope to sustain  this trend and upgrade to a new boathouse in the near future.

An archive of the previous website containing photos and news posts can be found here.