HMS
Dalriada was established as a
Royal Naval Reserve Headquarters Unit for Greenock and the Firth of Clyde, Scotland in 1965 and originally occupied former air defence buildings on the outskirts of
Inverkip.
Dalriada remained in Inverkip until 1982, when the unit moved to the Navy Buildings in
Greenock, on the site of the former gun battery at
Fort Matilda.
Dalriada was named after the 6-7th-century Gaelic over-kingdom Dál Riata in which modern Greenock is located. The Ship's Badge of
Dalriada has the boar's head of
Clan Campbell (who occupied the territory of the ancient
Dál Riata Kingdom in the High Middle Ages) with a Celtic
torc and surmounted with a coronet. The letters R N R surround the device and all is enclosed within a diamond surmounted in turn by a plaque with the ship's name and above that the
Naval Crown. The principal RNR unit in Glasgow and the West of Scotland had been, since 1903, HMS
Graham, (Clyde Division RNR) based at Whitefield Road in Govan. At that time RNR Divisional HQs such as HMS
Graham were considered senior to HQ Units such as HMS Dalriada, especially in having greater numbers of Reservists and RN Staff attached and in operating active Ton Class Minesweepers as part of the Tenth Mine Counter Measure Squadron. Initially
Dalriada had been set up as a tender unit to HMS
Graham on which it relied for administrative and other functions. The 1990
Options for Change changes in RNR Force sizes saw the closure of HMS
Graham and the refocusing of the RNR in the West of Scotland on HMS
Dalriada. This left Glasgow City without an RNR presence, and the Govan site was handed over to the Army for use by the Territorial Army's
205 (Scottish) Field Hospital of the
2nd Medical Group. After some years the RNR presence in the City of Glasgow was restored through the creation of a satellite unit to HMS
Dalriada –
Govan Division (but not located on the site of the old HMS
Graham which remains in Army hands). In April 2013,
Dalriada moved to Govan, subsuming its satellite unit and co-locating with the
Royal Marines Reserve Glasgow Detachment. == See also ==