New digital equipment has been introduced

A new digital communications network has been installed which, senior coastguard officials said, will make the seas safer.

The Pentland closure came less than three months after another of Scotland's frontline stations at Oban was shut.

Campaigners opposed to the closures said that local knowledge is vital when an emergency occurs such as that involving the chemical tanker Ascania, which caught fire in the Pentland Firth last year.

Staff at the station were subsequently honoured for preventing a major environmental disaster.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency argued that safety will not be compromised and stressed that grassroots knowledge will remain in the form of rescue teams and other support services.

It also insisted that the new digital equipment will improve communications with those at sea.

The Pentland station made its last radio broadcast at midday and its role as a rescue co-ordination centre will be split between the coastguard stations in Shetland and Aberdeen.