Lerwick tide gauge site

The tide gauge building and pressure points are located on the inner wall at the breakwater entrance to the small boat harbour, south of Victoria Pier, Lerwick.
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Tide gauge location

The tide gauge equipment is housed in a GRP building mounted over the stilling well. The stilling well was used for the operation of the Lea Gauge but it is no longer in service. The present system is a pneumatic bubbler consisting of two full-tide and mid-tide pressure points mounted on steelwork attached to the harbour wall. All three pressure lines are monitored by the POL data logger.

The tide gauge is levelled to the tide gauge bench mark supported by Ordnance Survey auxiliary marks.

External users

Sea level pressures and/or elevations from this site are supplied to the following authority:

• Lerwick Port Authority, Port Control

Site history

1956 – Temporary Munro gauge installed by National Institute of Oceanography
1963 – Lea vertical gauge installed
1965 – Temporary Munro gauge removed
1989 – New wooden tide gauge building erected; the DATARING system was connected to the Lea gauge and a single full tide bubbler system
1995 – Tide gauge system upgraded with the installation of two full-tide and a mid-tide measuring system; the Lea gauge was replaced with an Ott pneumatic gauge
2002 – POL data logger installed mid-tide bubbler installed
2002 – Tide Gauge building and all equipment destroyed by fire
2003 – New GRP tide gauge building erected, and new steelwork with two full-tide and a mid-tide measuring system and met instruments were installed and connected to the POL data logger