Russian Arctic Convoy Museum

The Russian Arctic Convoy Museum sits at Birchburn on the eastern shore of Loch Ewe, three miles north of Poolewe at Aultbea. The museum tells the story of the wartime mustering point that Loch Ewe became, between 1941 and 1945, Loch Ewe was the assembly anchorage for the Arctic convoys that sailed from Britain to the Soviet northern ports at Murmansk and Archangel, carrying military supply to the Eastern Front through the most hazardous shipping route of the war.

The convoys ran in numbered cycles (PQ outbound, QP returning, later JW / RA) across the four-year campaign. Loch Ewe was the strategic choice, a deep-water sea-loch on the Atlantic side of Scotland, sheltered, with the Stornoway and the Faroes lookout chain to the west, and with the road and rail link back through Achnasheen to the wider supply network. At its peak, hundreds of vessels at a time anchored in the loch.

The losses were severe, German U-boat and aerial attacks in the Barents Sea, ice damage in winter, the long route past occupied Norway. The convoy crews were not formally recognised with a campaign medal until the British government issued the Arctic Star in 2013, nearly seventy years after the war ended.

The museum’s collection covers contemporary photography, letters and documents, ship-model and uniform displays, and the names of those lost on the route. A café and shop occupy the entrance area. Open through the season; reduced winter hours.

Current opening and ticketed events at the museum website.