Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation in the 1990s it was formally the Royal Naval Dockyard Rosyth.
Construction of the dockyard by civil engineers Easton, Gibb & Son commenced in 1909. At the time, the Royal Navy was strengthening its presence along the eastern seaboard of Great Britain due to a naval arms race with Germany.
In 1903 approval was given with an estimated cost of £3 million for "works" and £250,000 for machinery spread over 10 years. The site was 1,184 acres and the main basin would be 52.5 acres. Large enough for 11 battleships or 22 if doubled up. The first ship to dry dock there was the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Zealandia on 28 March 1916.
Babcock Thorn, a consortium operated by Babcock International and Thorn EMI, was awarded the management contract for Rosyth dockyard in 1987; with Rosyth Dockyard becoming a government owned, contractor run facility. This contract was awarded in parallel with Devonport Management Limited's contract to run Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth. In 1993 the Ministry of Defence announced plans to privatise Rosyth. Babcock International, who had bought out Thorn's share of the original Babcock Thorn consortium, was the only company to submit a bid and after protracted negotiations purchased the yard in January 1997.
In 1984 Rosyth was chosen as the sole location for refitting the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet (a role it was already specialising in), and in 1986 extensive rebuilding commenced to facilitate this new role. However in 1993, the government switched the refitting role to Devonport Dockyard.
In September 2025 the British Ministry of Defence has confirmed that as part of a $460m upgrade to Rosyth Dockyard on the East coast of Scotland, a docking facility is to be created able to receive Dreadnought Class nuclear ballistic missile submarines.
The dockyard currently has a role is breaking up decommissioned nuclear submarines, the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers were completed at Rosyth, and Type 31 frigates are built in the yard. A submarine maintenance facility was built at the yard in the late 1980s but was never brought into use before the work was transferred to Devonport. Hence it is likely that the new facility can take advantage of some existing infrastructure.
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