DOWN MEMORY LANE: Bill McAllister recounts how the old Kessock Ferry played a hugely significant part in the Inverness and Highland economy until the new A9 and Kessock Bridge cut a swathe through the Black Isle

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a historic treble – the diverting of a new A9 dual carriageway through the Black Isle, the opening of the Kessock Bridge and the final sailing of the Kessock Ferry.

It will seem strange to readers under 60 that the “old” A9 went through Beauly, Muir of Ord and Dingwall before it transferred to cross the Kessock Bridge.

Although it had been open to traffic since June the Queen Mother formally opened the Kessock Bridge on August 6, 1982 and there was some sadness locally as the “Rosehaugh”, the last vessel to ply between North and South Kessock, made its farewell voyage.

This is the 595th anniversary of the Dominican monks, who ran a monastery in Inverness, being granted a Royal Charter to run a ferry to and from the Black Isle.

A trading link, it was also a key piece in the jigsaw of the popular pilgrimage route to St Duthac’s Church in Tain. Crossing by ferry, pilgrims walked from North Kessock to Cromarty, took a ferry to Nigg and then walked to Tain.

The narrows could be treacherous and in the 1650s English author Richard Franck described the Kessock Ferry service as “rugged” and “extremely hazardous”, recalling “luxuriant tides and aggravating winds that violently contract the surf off the sea”.

Intriguingly he also mentions being alarmed at “the porpoises” in danger of leaping into the boat. Were they ancestors of today’s dolphins, such a frequent sight at North Kessock?

Later, Bishop Robert Ford described it as the best ferry service in Scotland – but added “they have no good means of getting carriages on board.”

In the 1800s, there was an inn on either side of the ferry. Sir William Fettes bought Redcastle Estate in 1825 for £135,000, including rights to the ferry service. He built the Kessock Hotel with a new pier west of the previous one, directly in front of what is now the North Kessock Hotel.

This year is also the 115th anniversary of the last sailboat on the route, as steam took over in 1907.

The Burton family of Dochfour owned the Kessock area and ferry service at the time, and brought new steam boats, Nellie and Maude, named after family members.

As war clouds gathered, a series of setbacks struck the ferry service. The erratic Lowestoft Belle was taken out of service in 1936 but owner William Macdonald’s replacement vessel sank off Argyll without ever reaching Inverness. Two months later, a second acquisition also sank.

Macdonald’s luck was clearly out when a third vessel could not pass through the canal lock gates at Banavie while, in 1937, a fourth sank off Tarbat Ness!

On March 2, 1938 three crew members and three coastguards died when the ferry boat capsized.

Questions were being asked in Parliament about the inadequacies of the service and in 1939 Inverness Town Council and Ross and Cromarty County Council agreed to take over its running.

In 1951, the Eilean Dubh (Black Isle) became the first purpose-built vehicle ferry on the crossing, carrying eight vehicles. The four-vehicle Inbhir Nis (Inverness) followed.

The ferry increasingly catered for leisure traffic and the first roll-on, roll-off vessel, the Rosehaugh, arrived in 1968.

The Kessock Bridge sounded its death knell.

The Cromarty Bridge had opened in April 1979 and the Dornoch Bridge opening in 1991 meant the new A9 halved the Inverness-Wick journey time. The final sailing, in July 1982, saw the Kessock Ferry cross into memory.

• Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.

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