Kyle of Lochalsh is probably the most used connection between Skye and the Mainland. It has both road and rail links, but the railway ends at Kyle and there are no railways open to the public on Skye.
Until the building of the Skye Bridge, the only way to cross to Kyleakin on the island was by ferry.
For many years the ferry did not run during the night, which meant that the island was effectively cut off to the casual traveller, although the ferry would always turn out for the emergency services.
For years the islanders campaigned for better links with the mainland. One would have thought that it was in the interests of the ferry company to provide a better 24-hour ferry service. Perhaps Macbraynes thought that the bridge would never be built and there was no urgency.
Unfortunately for them, they only provided a 24-hour service with larger ferries by the time that the planning of the bridge was well under way. Now the Kyle "flatties" are gone and the bridge has replaced it.
For those of you who are new to the Western Isles, I had better explain that Caledonian Macbrayne is the Western Isles ferry service. They have always had a a virtual monopoly on ferry services in this part of the world, so much so that in the old days there was an irreverent rhyme. It went "The earth belongs unto the Lord and all that it contains, except the Western Islands and they are all Macbraynes!"
Their web site is well worth a look if you are planning to travel in the Western Islands. It is to be found at http://www.calmac.co.uk
Although the new bridge is convenient, it is an eyesore. Drivers used to have to pay to cross the bridge and there was a protest group on the Internet. The protestors won and the bridge is now free of charge.
I should think that Kyleakin has been particularly hard hit by the bridge. In the old days the ferry used to arrive at Skye at Kyleakin slipway. This meant that it was necessary to drive through the village before proceeding on one's way.
When the new bridge was built however it made landfall on Skye slightly north of the village, effectively bypassing it, which must have had a very detrimental effect on trade in the local community.
South of Kyle, near to the Skye shore, there is a most interesting shipwreck which, unfortunately is only accessible by sea. In 1999 it was possible to take a trip to the wreck in a boat which had underwater glass observation panels. The story of the wreck is interesting and is as follows.
This ship, the Port Napier, was a merchant ship which was taken over by the Royal Navy during the war and was converted into a minelayer. In 1940 it was berthed at Kyle of Lochalsh, where it took on board 560 naval mines.
Shortly afterwards, somebody made the rather sad observation that the ship was on fire. The vessel was immediately removed from the harbour. Had it blown up there, Kyle would have ceased to exist.
Fortunately, the ship was swiftly carried away by the very strong tide which races through the narrows at Kyle. The fire went out of control and the ship was abandoned.
The ship's fuel tanks blew up, lifting the superstructure off the ship and dumping it on the shore half a mile away
Surprisingly, most of the mines did not explode at this time. There is supposed to be a naval gun from the ship somewhere in the trees halfway up the mountain behind the wreck. The wreck lay undisturbed and forgotten until after the war. Then a passing scrap man decided to help himself to the phosphor bronze ship's propeller. Unfortunately for him, he had not researched the history of the wreck. He decided that the best way to detach the propeller from the ship was to use an explosive charge.
The salvage boat disappeared and the scrap man became the world's first astronaut. Since the area was not exactly teeming with journalists, history did not record this fact and the honour erroneously later went to Yuri Gagarin.
After this incident, the locals, not surprisingly, made a fuss and insisted that the Navy clear away the remaining mines. This was duly done, but about 30 of the mines remain unaccounted for. They are either festering away on the seabed, or possibly lurking somewhere on the mountainside. And that is the sad story of the Port Napier.
At Kyleakin itself there is a ruined castle, Castle Maoil.
It is alleged that, in the old days, a chain was stretched across the sea from this castle to the mainland and a toll levied on passing ships. I think that, like many Skye tales, this is a tall story. To manipulate a chain of that length and weight would be an interesting engineering problem to put it mildly!
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The new and the old: The same view from the now defunct ferry in pre-bridge days |
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| On board the Seaprobe Atlantis in March 2006 |
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Copyright © Gareth Boote 2000