Scotlands Turntable Ferries

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For most of the twentieth century, the little turntable ferry -- an ingenious, local invention, able to load at any state of tide and sparing motorists the bother of reversing -- was a Highland institution, bearing carts and cars, locals and tourists, over the straits and sea lochs of Scotland's western seaboard. By the late 1960s, alas, they had become a victim of their own success, and rapidly gave way to much bigger vessels, bypass roads and bridges. Today, only the doughty Glenachulish still sails, as the seasonal Kylerhea ferry and a popular 'back door' crossing to the Isle of Skye. She is now community-owned, at last recognised as a national treasure and now officially a Ship of Historic Interest -- the last in a distinguished line of characterful wee boats, beautiful places, gifted local mariners, memorable events and characters and a past, gentler way of Highland life. Here - for the first time -- Robert Beale and John Hendy tell the tale of these sturdy wee ships, the routes they served and the men who sailed them. If turntable ferries had not the glamour and elan of the great Clyde steamers, they abounded nevertheless in character, they linked isolated communities, they opened the West Highlands to the motorist -- and bequeathed today's flourishing tourist industry.