Unknown harbour on Loch Caolisport

AngusMcDoon

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I found yesterday that there's a small harbour on the south shore of Loch Caolisport. It seems to have no name, hardly shown on any chart & not mentioned in pilot books. It's shallow inside now but from the rock armour outside looks like it was important once. There's what looks like the remains of a small ferry linkspan, the rusty boxy thing at the left of the picture, & some steelwork that could have been where maybe a ferry docked. There's nothing on the other side of the loch. Was this once the mainland end of a ferry to Jura?

Anyone know its history? There's 1.25m of depth at LAT & a clean sandy bottom of anyone wants to anchor inside as I am in the photo.
 

A1Sailor

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You been droning again?:p

There may have been a ferry from there to Jura, but there may also have been one from Keills (south of Tayvallich) to Lagg. There were definite plans in the 1960s for that to be the preferred route to Jura & Islay, instead of which the route from Kennacraig was developed. A longer sea crossing, but less expense involved investing in roads with the latter.
See: https://www.transport.gov.scot/medi...e-islay-overland-route-expert-ferry-group.pdf

Edit;
Your harbour is right next to Ormsary estate, and it is logical that there was a sea route from there to Jura - simply for transit of animals between Jura and the mainland.

This might give you the answer:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferry-Tales-Argyll-Walter-Weyndling/dp/1841582700
The pier at Keills is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/L...29bd924dea3be10!8m2!3d55.8903499!4d-5.6420844
 
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JumbleDuck

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Western Ferries, who now run across the Clyde at the Cloch, started with a series of ventures in the Sound of Jura, which included a direct ferry to Jura. Sounds as if you may have found the remains of the mainland end. As I recall, there is quite a lot about their history in the Easdale Museum ... unfortunately I left Easdale this afternoon.
 
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AngusMcDoon

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I think it's the remains of an old ferry port & Jura seems the only likely destination. The amount & size of the lumps of rock forming the breakwater looks too big to be something an estate would build to mooove a few moocoos awa the wata.
 

A1Sailor

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AngusMcDoon

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It's a Hendrix Genetics site next to it, a big Dutch co that do food R&D & breeding for salmon production. I doubt that they use the harbour for shipping - the intact bit is shallow & the deeper bit with the remains of infrastructure is derelict.
 
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Quandary

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The Omsary Estate is owned by the Lithgow family, once big shipbuilders on the Clyde, I think back in the day, they could do most anything they wanted. Landcatch was (is) one of their companies, as is the wind farm on the hill.
 

AngusMcDoon

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The Omsary Estate is owned by the Lithgow family, once big shipbuilders on the Clyde, I think back in the day, they could do most anything they wanted. Landcatch was (is) one of their companies, as is the wind farm on the hill.

I think it's was, as the sign outside says Hendrix Genetics, & that's a cloggy company.
 

A1Sailor

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It's a Hendrix Genetics site next to it, a big Dutch co that do food R&D & breeding for salmon production. I doubt that they use the harbour for shipping - the intact bit is shallow & the deeper bit with the remains of infrastructure is derelict.
The e-mail address for the Landcatch site is @hendrix-genetics.com They might be a "breeding farm", providing bred salmon/trout for the many other fish farms in Scotland.
 
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Quandary

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Not that it matters but Landcatch was set up as a salmon breeding/farming company in 1976, the Dutch bought it in 2011, so it was locally owned for quite a while.
 
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You been droning again?:p

There may have been a ferry from there to Jura, but there may also have been one from Keills (south of Tayvallich) to Lagg. There were definite plans in the 1960s for that to be the preferred route to Jura & Islay, instead of which the route from Kennacraig was developed. A longer sea crossing, but less expense involved investing in roads with the latter.
See: https://www.transport.gov.scot/medi...e-islay-overland-route-expert-ferry-group.pdf

Edit;
Your harbour is right next to Ormsary estate, and it is logical that there was a sea route from there to Jura - simply for transit of animals between Jura and the mainland.

This might give you the answer:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferry-Tales-Argyll-Walter-Weyndling/dp/1841582700
The pier at Keills is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/L...29bd924dea3be10!8m2!3d55.8903499!4d-5.6420844

My great great great great grandfather was ferryman (John Gillies). His daughter was Mary Rankine (Lussagiven) and her daughter married Robert Broadfoot who was farmer at Leitchlands Farm, Inverkip.
 
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