Craigkelly transmitting station

The Craigkelly transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located at Craigkelly () north of the Firth of Forth above the town of Burntisland in Fife, Scotland. It has a 125-metre tall free-standing lattice tower reassembled after being moved from its original location at Emley Moor, West Yorkshire, where it was used to broadcast the 405-line ITV service between 1956 and 1966.

The station came into service in 1968 to improve coverage of BBC2 to the Edinburgh area, which has a number of hills blocking good reception from Black Hill. In September 1971 it also started broadcasting BBC1 and Scottish Television on 625 lines in colour and though considered a 'main' station, it actually rebroadcast the signal from the Black Hill transmitting station, like a relay. Since DSO in 2011 however, all feeds to the station are by fibre optic cable, with microwave links provided as a backup.

In March 1983 Channel 4 was added (five months after programmes began), however Channel 5 was available at its launch on 30 March 1997.

Its tower now also carries antennas for many broadcasting and private radio organisations.

Craigkelly is part of the STV Central TV region, and unlike Black Hill, the variant of STV Central in Craigkelly is the East variant, so there is regional news and commercials for the Edinburgh area.

The transmitter was originally an A group but has become a K group (or wideband) with the advent of Channel 5 and Digital. Craigkelly is one of the few main transmitters which did not return to its original group at Digital Switchover (DSO). However, when Craigkelly went through its 700 MHz clearance in October 2018 all of the main 6 muxes returned to the A group, the only two outside being muxes 7 and 8, which were switched off between 2020 and 2022.

The tower can be clearly seen from many parts of Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth on its prominent position atop the hill known as The Binn.

Coverage Television reception from Craigkelly includes a wide area stretching from Stirling and Falkirk in the central belt, eastwards to Crail in Fife and Dunbar in Lothian and southwards to Peebles in Scottish Borders. Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes also receive a strong signal, as does most of the principal city of Edinburgh.

Transmitted services

Analogue radio FrequencykWService97.3 MHz9.8Forth 1101.1 MHz10Heart Scotland104.1 MHz5BBC Radio nan Gaidheal105.7 MHz10Capital Scotland

Digital radio FrequencyBlockkWOperator222.064 MHz11D0.78Switch Scotland223.936 MHz12A6.8Digital One225.648 MHz12B5BBC National DAB229.072 MHz12D1Bauer Edinburgh

Digital television

FrequencyUHFkWOperatorSystem21+20PSB3 (BBC B)DVB-T22420PSB2 (D3&4)DVB-T2720PSB1 (BBC A)DVB-T2910COM4 (SDN)DVB-T3110COM5 (ARQ A)DVB-T325LTVmuxDVB-T3710COM6 (ARQ B)DVB-T

Before switchover FrequencyUHFkWOperator23-4SDN (Mux A)26-4BBC (Mux B)294Digital 3&4 (Mux 2)334BBC (Mux 1)392Arqiva (Mux D)422Arqiva (Mux C)

Analogue television Analogue television transmissions ceased from Craigkelly on 15 June 2011. BBC2 Scotland were switched off on 1st June 2011 FrequencyUHFkWService21100Channel 424100STV (Central)27100BBC Two Scotland31100BBC One Scotland484Channel 5 1st of June 2011-15th of June 2011, FrequencyUHFkWService21100Channel 424100STV (Central) DVB-T2720BBC A 31100BBC One Scotland484Channel 5

Craigkelly transmitting station

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