The Ferry Boat, Tarbert, Loch Fyne. After E. Duncan.
"Loch Leven at Ballachulish Ferry." From "Mountain, Loch, and Glen" published 1870.Cattle drovers driving their beasts down to the ferry.
"The Ferry." An etching by the Scottish artist Robert Walker MacBeth.
The Cattle Ferry. Artist and place unknown.
Ferrying people to Carrick Castle on Loch Goil. Artist unknown.
Photograph of a chain ferry, a common means of propulsion. Place and photographer unknown. The ferry at Loch Hope would have used a similar system.
"Ferry and Golf Club House, Peterhead." A Valentine postcard, 1912. It uses the same system of propulsion.
Animals would be squeezed onto ferries. "A Highland Cargo, Kyle of Lochalsh." A Valentine postcard 1925.
"Shipping Shetland Ponies." Photographer and date unknown.
Ponies being shipped from Fair Isle. A George Washington Wilson photograph, c1880.
Passengers would sometimes have to vie with animals for places on ferries. Here tourists wait with sheep at Strachur, in Argyll.
With the tourists came the need to accomodate all sorts of carriages, etc. This a ferry at Dornie, Loch Long. Photographer unknown, c1880.
This looks particularly unsteady. "Crossing the Sea to Skye." A GWW postcard.
Photographer and place unknown.
Later, the tourist brought his car....Photographer and place unknown.
"Dornie Ferry." A Valentine postcard, 1931. At this time, Eilean Donan Castle, seen in the distance, was being restored.
Another postcard of Dornie Ferry, date unknown.....
....and a third, posted 1928.
Aird Ferry, also on Loch Duich, c1910. Sheep are being unloaded, and in the background Eilean Donan Castle can be seen in its unrestored state.
"Eilean Donan Castle and Dornie Ferry, Ross-shire." A J.B. White card, c.1935.
An important crossing point in the far north-west was at Kylesku. A Valentine postcard, 1935.
Kylesku, date unknown.
Kylesku, posted 1962.
Kylesku, date unknown. The bridge which now stands at Kylesku was opened in 1984.
Two small snapshots of Kylesku, the hotel and its ferry.
Colour photography for this later postcard, exact date unknown.
Another key crossing point, further south, was at Ballachulish, Loch Leven. "Ballachulish Hotel and Loch Leven Ferry." Date unknown.
"Motor Boat crossing Ballachulish Ferry." A postcard sent in 1913.
The Ferry, Ballachulish. A Valentine postcard dated 1925. Loch Leven narrows considerably at this point, and there have been ferries here for many centuries. A bridge, built in 1975, now renders the ferries obsolete.
A lovely postcard of a group of walkers waiting patiently at Ballachulish. Date unknown.
A Valentine postcard 1931. "Ballachulish Ferry."
Ballachulish Ferry. A magic lantern slide by a photographer called Whitaker. Probably not commercial.
"Ballachullish Ferry and Ben Vair." A card posted in the 1940s.
The Ferries of Scotland, Large and Small.
Until the roads were improved in the 19th century, ferries formed a crucial part of the infrastructure of the entire country. I have provided two pages of images of ferries. As with all my sliding gallery pages, you need to click on an image as it passes by, and proceed manually to see all the images I have posted.
