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The "Sound of Islay" threading her way through thin ice in February 2009

LIGHT AT THE END OFKINTYRE'S IRISH RAILWAY TUNNEL

In the 'Days of Sail', there were many vessels sailing the short distance between the shores ofIreland and Kintyre, many of these using the little and primitive ports such as those atMarypans, Carskey, Pollywilline, Glenhervie and Feochaig but, the most frequented port wasthat at Dunaverty, sometimes referred to as Machrimore, where too there was a customsofficer !

Besides being situated at the extreme end of the Kintyre peninsula, Machrimore offereddifferent landing sites which could be used according to the different wind directions though,if wind and tide permitted, the normal landing place would be within the mouth of the ConieWater, under the shelter of Dunaverty Rock.

The ferry seems to have continued running passengers and cargo till around the 1850's whenit was overtaken by the convenience and the comfort of the many steamer services which bythen plied The North Channel.

On Friday, April 27, 1888, Perth's "The West Australian" newspaper tells us that a secretsurvey had lately been made in in the North of Ireland and on The Mull of Kintyre, with the

object of arriving at data for an estimate of the cost of a tunnel across the narrow straightwhich separates Ireland from Scotland.

"It is said that one Sir Edward Watkin had interested himself in the scheme; possibly with aview to prove the practicability of a long sea tunnel and that the estimated cost of the tunnelwould be around 8 million pounds sterling, or about a million pounds per nautical mile.

"On the Irish side the existing line of railway approaches within a few miles of the promintorywhich forms the nearest point of Scotland; but on the Scottish side an approach railway ofabout eighty miles would have to be constructed from the Lochgilphead station of The Crinan

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Railway, 'now under construction to The Mull of Kintyre', where would be the entrance to theproposed tunnel.

"Even this would not give continous railway communication between England and Ireland, forthe western terminus of the short railway which is intended to connect the west coast ofArgyllshire with The Firth of Clyde is situated at Kilmun, on The Holy Loch, from whichpassengers have to be conveyed by steamer across The Firth to Greenock.

"Even though communication were effected between The Mull of Kintyre and The ObanRailway, which would bring itinto direct connection with the railway system of the country, the route so opened up betweenEngland and Ireland would be an extremely roundabout one.

"The avodance of a sea passage is of course so important an element, that even an extensionof time might be calculated as not altogether condemnatory.

"By far the most suitable point for a tunnel, had the depth not been almost prohibitory, is thestrait, almost as narrow as the other, between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. This would havegiven almost direct connection berween Belfast and Scotland and The North of EnglandIndustries".

Nine years later the July 1897 issue of 'The Irish Builder' reports that "a deputation from theIrish and English Committees and gentlemen from the SW of Scotland are going to TheChairman of The Board of Trade to ask for 15,000 to commence trial tunnel borings, an MP,named as Arnold Forster, is mentioned as a supporter and too mentioned in the delegation is

The President of The Belfast Chamber of Commerce.

"Responding to the delegation's request, Mr Ritchie, The President of The Board of Trade,said that handing out public money for a railway project would be a new departure (therailways of that era of course were all funded privately and had no government investmentinvolved in their construction or operation) and says that he would have to put the request forthe requested 15,000 before The Chancellor of The Exchequer (though we do not know if this

happened - Ed. here).

"Mr Ritchie (thus) very politely promises every help except actual financial assistance (as)many shipping interests would not entertain paying taxes to do themselves out of business !"

In the March 1900 issue of 'The Irish Builder' (which includes a route diagram), a furtherreport, from Lyndon Macassey, the well-known Ulster engineer of the day, tells us that thecheaper, now 8.5 million tunnel scheme, running from Cushendun to a point (on thediagram) near The Mull of Kintyre itself (probably to somewhere near Southend), would takean estimated 16 years to complete, the construction work on any, vastly more expensive,tunnel between Donaghadee and Portpatrick not likely to be completed in less than 40 years !

Though nothing more seems to have been recorded about 'The Irish Tunnel' proposals, in 1910and again just after World War I, in 1919, The Glasgow and South Western Railway Company,successful in their Fairlie Pier railway connection arrangements with the new turbine steamersto Campbeltown, had an idea of taking over the narrow gauge Campbeltown to Machrihanishrailway, it beginning to carry passengers in 1906 and building a line up the west side ofKintyre from Dunaverty to Cour.

The line would have run up Conie Glen to a crossing junction at Drumlemble, on toBellochantuy where a new 'Turnberry-style' hotel would be built and a new golf course atKillean and then run from Tayinloan ferry, via the Narachan Burn and Sunadale, to Cour,

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where a new pier would be built and a connecting steamer then run to Fairlie, or even toGreenock and, on accasion, to Ardrossan.

The idea being not only for a through passenger route between Ireland and Scotland but too aline which would have run coal out for shipment, via Dunaverty, to Ireland or, via Cour, toGlasgow.

The 'Sou' West' company also proposed running a second, unconnected, line from Ronachan

Bay, via Clachan and Glenrisdell, to another new pier at Skipness, the original pier thereopened in 1879, so as to better connect Jura and Islay with Fairlie etc. and of course Glasgow.

A monument to yet another unexecuted scheme of The Glasgow and South Western Railway isstill to be seen at Carrick Castle, at the mouth of Loch Goil, where the company built 'arailway station', the curious looking building beside the pier, for a line to connect into TheOban and Callander Railway, the necessary Parliamentary Orders never pursued.

Nothing is known about 'The Crinan Railway', though it most likely would have been but anarrow gauge 'tramway' running along the side of The Crinan Canal, from Ardrishaig toLochgilphead, Cairnbaan and Crinan and the idea of extending any such construction toKilmun, on The Holy Loch, can only have been 'notional', rather than financially practicable.

A full 100 years after these proposals to 'bridge' The North Channel with a railway tunnel andexploit the Kintyre peninsula as a 'route centre', enabling passengers (and cargoes) to moveeasily to and from Ireland without demanding transit via 'over-trafficked' Central and West ofScotland routes, office-bound planners and but occasional venturers into these parts fromScottish Government and other related agencies, almost 'studiously' avoid all mention orconsideration of the historical evidence which marks out 'the shortest crossing' betweenIreland and Scotland as that most likely to viable, even to this day, in terms of traffic revenue,prevailing weather conditions, operating costs and start-up, establishment, costs.

Within the last few years, even before the re-establishment of The Scottish Parliament, in1999, there have been debates about the 'financial viability' of a ferry service betweenKintyre and Ireland, the politicians on both sides of The North Channel, swayed by office-

bound and non-seafaring officials, persuaded to 'go for the long haul' and promote andsupport the idea of running a ferry service between Ballycastle and Campbeltown, with, if theoffice-bound officials and their appointed consultants can get way with it, 'a route extension'to the Ayrshire port of Troon.

Though that consultants' report has been 'under lock and key' since it was completed in May2008, more than a year ago, the document here written in September 2009, there is nosingle mention of the work anywhere on the consultants' own website, where all theiremployments (and many case studies) are proudly listed, since the beginning of 2004 !

Whatever the reasons for such secrecy, it can be revealed that The Scottish Goverment'sconsultants are indeed experienced in marine matters for, as they were completing their

study on 'The Irish Ferry', they were, paraphrasing one of the consultants' own press releases,'commissioned, along with partners, to carry out the work on behalf of Glasgow City Council,which represents a group of local authorities in the West of Scotland, to assess the viability ofdeveloping a waterbus commuter service on the River Clyde.

'The findings of the study, expected to have been delivered by the end of March 2008, wereto explore how the River Clyde could be used for public transport services, similar to othernetworks deployed in London, Sydney and New York and would see the development of acommuter service linking Glasgow and The Clyde Estuary as well as providing additional

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tourist networks to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Loch Long, Loch Goil andRothesay.

'Reviewing 'best practice from across The World', the consultants were to assess the likelydemand for such a service, as well as opportunities to integrate with existing transportservices and were to also provide recommendations for feasible service patterns, vesselspecifications and assess the economic viability of the services.

'The conclusions were to focus on the potential to enhance the use of The River Clyde, toopen up public transport linkages between locations which are currently poor or non-existent,to boost cross-river public transport movements by the introduction of waterbus services andto examine the opportunities for interchange with other modes of transport to ensure waterbusservices integrate with existing transport networks'.

Like 'The Irish Ferry' report, this 'waterbus service' report, which could have been written byanyone with a knowledge of the old Clyde 'Clutha' ferries, which provided a well-used'waterbus service' between Glasgow's Victoria Bridge and Whiteinch in the years between1884 and 1903, has also escaped the clutches of 'the public domain' !

Just what the similarities of, for a start, weather, between The Clyde, Sydney and New York

may be, are probably as much of a mystery to the meteorologists as they are to those of usmortals who actually live and work in west of Scotland and the idea of any competent sea-going officer ever attempting to take a 'waterbus' west of The Cloch Lighthouse in anysoutherly sea, or even trying to head eastwards, up-river, in even a moderate easterly wind,'beggars belief' and 'best practice from across The World', as the consultants phrase it, justdoes not and cannot apply in these waters.

In these matters, history tells us that, in the 1960s, The Caledonian Steam Packet Companyquestioned motorists disembarking from the Dunoon car-ferry at Gourock about theirintentions and found that the majority of those returning south to England turned not toGlasgow and then then A74 but south down the Ayrshire Coast to Dumfries and Galloway and

The Lake District for their final nights of their holidays.

The traditional pattern of tourist movements around Scotland finds that traffic moves anti-clockwise i.e. from 'The South', northwards to Edinburgh and then to Inverness and southagain to Fort William and Oban. The tourist travellers then heading homewards as their fundsrun out, the final funds being kept for a final night's 'fling' in the 'border' and Lake Districtareas and the essential 'first-thing' and 'next-morning breakfast' grocery supplies neededwhen they got home !Despite the prevalence of cash dispensing machines and credit cards, nothing has altered thetourists' attitudes over the years.

When the Fairlie-based car ferry "Cowal (II)" began a daily service Fairlie Millport (Keppel Pier)and Brodick to Tarbert in 1970, the service essentially 'unadvertised' being designed to provide

a relief for the sometimes over-loaded Ardrossan - Brodick car ferry "Glen Sannox (III)",motorists loading their cars at Tarbert confirmed the earlier findings and, much to STGssurprise and thanks largely to the editor of the weekly "Autocar" magazine, quite aconsiderable traffic built up for the Tarbert section !

The proposals to reinstate the car-ferry service from Campbeltown should take account ofthese findings and, instead of simply focusing on the provision of an Irish service, should seekto establish links with both Ireland and the Loch Ryan area drawing traffic through Kintyrewhich would otherwise be lost to the already well patronised Stranraer - Larne ferry services.

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Additionally, the proposed new services would open up a through continental link to the Cork -Roscoff vehicle ferry. Refrigerated lorry traffic from Spain hauled fruit across the EnglishChannel, the empty lorries came north to the various West Highland landing ports for shellfishbefore returning home again, not infrequently through Poole, in the south of England and thehomeward route through Kintyre had the potential for shortening driving hours and deliverytimes.

The Kintyre - 'Loch Ryan' link would again pull homeward bound southern tourists through Mid

Argyll and Kintyre and, through reciprocal ticketing arrangements with the Stranraer - Larneand other Irish Sea ferry operators, a completely newset of mini-break, weekend and mini-circular tourist breaks, operating in all directions, wouldbe created.

There has been no recent history of commercial trading between Kintyre and the Ayrshireports to suggest the viability of any Kintyre - Ayr - Troon or Ardrossan freight service.

Robin Taylor's "Red Baroness" and "Red Duchess" and other ships already carry out the onlynatural cargo that Kintyre produces, trees and not one of these ships ever arrives laden inCampbeltown and not one of these shipowners or their agents has ever been asked to bring inthe raw steel etc. for the wind turbine towers and assemblies manufactured at Machrihanish.

The export of these 'non-stackable' tower products requires expert handling, in case ofdamage to their outer skins and requiring secure stowage on their outward journeys, the truthof the matter being that these tower products need special care in transit and, as any insurerwould likely advise, they should not be carried 'cheek to jowl' with 'ordinary' car ferry traffic.

Despite the appeal of any short Kintyre - Ayrshire ferry to some, not least the most recentlyengaged Scottish Government consultants, the actual (up to 3 hour) crossing times, theadditional time needed for booking in, boarding and disembarkation would nullify the seemingadvantage of such a route.

There could be no real time improvement in moving freight by this route, one easily affected

by weather conditions, no support could be expected from road hauliers on either side of TheClyde, not so much because of the expense of the passage but too by the problems of re-booking, in the case of services cancelled by weather conditions, but rather by the fairlyobvious challenge of trying to recover already, pre-paid, charges from the ferry operator(s),that of deep concern to road hauliers working on ever decreasing margins and potentiallydoing severe damage to their tight cash flows !

Too it should be remembered that the only commercial traffic, 'in now long past recent time',was a 'near-regular' lorry going eastwards from Campbeltown, which ran to the fish processingplant in Annan and, before that, some few seasonal runs of lime from the now long defunctKintyre Farmers to the area around Kircudbright, it better served with lime from NorthernIreland.

Hyslop 'The Butcher', from Tarbert, made very occasional and irregular trips to the old marketin Lanark, three lorries from Tweed Valley Transport, in convoy, made two trips a year toKintyre and Hendry of Galston's cattle float and trailer used to make weekly trips to Kintyre'sfarms, that reduced as often or not nowadays to but a single trip each month.

From the foregoing summary of commercial traffic movements, it is difficult to understand justhow any 'Ayrshire ferry'

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service could be made viable, Troon too far north in any case to catch, or even appeal to,'tourist' traffic, which traditionally moves in the pattern identified above. In any case, 'one-ship' ferry operations are notoriously known to 'founder' !

A 'one ship' operation running between Ballycastle, Campbeltown and Troon would not only beat the mercy of the weather, the sea conditions on the long reach between Ballycastle and theeast of the Kintyre peninsula uncomfortable at the best of times for passengers and oftupsetting in even moderate westerlies and easterlies and crossings from the shelter of

Campbeltown Loch to the Ayrshire coast and gaining access to any of the Ayrshire ports,Ardrossan, Irvine, Troon, Ayr and Girvan not for the feint-hearted traveller in sometimes evenmoderate southerly winds, but, with only one ship in ownership and nothing similar, least in'high season', to provide a replacement, delays and breakdowns would inevitably jeopardisethe success of such an ill-devised and 'extended' venture.

However, there are already and ample enough berthing facilities for stern and side-loadingferries at both Cairnryan and Stranraer, the former being favoured, right at the entrance toLoch Ryan and, unlike the Ayrshire ports, there is good shelter from the winds in Loch Ryan.

So, no 'Irish Railway Tunnel', no 'Ayrshire ferry crossing', no 'waterbus' and no 'fuel-guzzling'high-speed catamarans or hovercraft !

The answer perhaps lies in 'Going Back to The Future', for The Government of Newfoundlandhas long being wanting to build a bigger ship to replace Western Ferries' "Sound of Islay" onthe St. Brendan's car ferry service (she seen here in February 2009) and, though somethought her too slow in service when she opened up the Campbeltown to Red Bay ferry servicein 1969, she is understood to have been fairly recently re-engined.

Though on the Irish side, rather than Red Bay, the natural destination for any ferry servicefrom Kintyre should be Larne, with good berthing facilities and, importantly, good routecommunications to the whole of Ireland by bus and by train, ideal for non-landing day tripexcursions from Ireland to Kintyre, the original Red Bay slipway, built by Western Ferries, isstill in place AND, if it not still fitted below her stern vehicle ramp, it would be easy enough tomanufacture the 'T-Bar' frame which would allow her to berth on today's Campbeltown ferry

berth linkspan.

Just as before, the "Sound of Islay" could be returned to her old timetable on a revivedCampbeltown - Red Bay service, a daily double run in 'high season'; a daily double run overweekends, Fridays to Mondays inclusively and a single daily run, Tuesdays to Thursdays in the'shoulders' of each season and a single daily run in winter, a pattern of sailings whichCampbeltown's John Leesmoffat who, along with Clachan's Bob McLundie, captained both the"Sound of Islay" and the "Claymore" on previous Irish ferry operations from Campbeltown,both having an intimate knowledge of these services' traffic patterns AND the prevailing local

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weather conditions throughout the year, which is more than 'the consultants' have ever askedor known about !

Such a service would require NO SUBSIDY on the basis of previous traffic returns, the servicewould be 'fuel-and-labour-economic' to operate and, the ship still in current certification,albeit Canadian and having originally only cost the Newfoundland Government some 275,000in September 1981, it is suggested that the re-purchase of the ship and the total costreinstatement of the Red Bay car ferry service might cost even less than the 1 million annual

'subsidy' currently being offered by the Scottish Government, the only problems, suggestsretired Captain John Leesmoffat, being that "One would need to telephone Greenock to bringin a Customs' Officer and get someone to put a 'chalk-board' notices outside the informationcentre on Campbeltown Quay and on the roadside at Red Bay" !

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