(334)  LIKE A BIRD ON THE WING: THE GLENELG-KYLERHEA FERRY FOR SALE

Scots Law News has long taken an interest in communications between the mainland and the Isle of Skye, and therefore draws attention to the story in The Times for 18 March 2004 announcing that the Glenelg-Kyle Rhea ferry may close in the coming summer unless the owner, Mr Roddy Macleod, can find a buyer.  Mr Macleod wants to concentrate on his fruit and veg business, and is hoping for a community buy-out of his ferry.  He says that business on the ferry has dipped since the Skye Bridge tolls were frozen, although 14,039 cars were carried over the Sound of Sleat in the 2003 season.  Passengers with cars pay £7 single, £12 return.  Scots Law News hopes that those who wish to speed over to Skye without using the bridge will not be driven to swimming the Sound of Sleat as did the cattle who until 1906 headed south from Skye to the marts of the Lowlands with their drovers (see A R B Haldane, The Drove Roads of Scotland (1952), pp. 75-77).