Extra funding sought for Highland-backed small ferry services

Highland Council has asked for extra funding to cover rising costs affecting the ferry services it helps to run.

The local authority supports six services including between Cromarty on the Black Isle and Nigg in Easter Ross, and sailings connecting communities on the Lochaber coast.

In a new report the council said fuel, maintenance, staff and contingency costs were all increasing.

It has asked Transport Scotland for its annual grant assistance of £1m to be increased to £1.5m for 2025-26.

In the report to next week’s Lochaber committee, officers said that at the time of writing a “positive” response had been received from the public body.

The local authority receives grant funding from the Scottish government via Transport Scotland to help it deliver what are called internal ferry services.

They include a service to Inverie, a small community in Knoydart that can only be reached by boat or a walk of about two to three days.

The Corran Ferry is the busiest of the services.

It carries about 270,000 cars and 11,000 commercial vehicles a year.

The five-minute crossing of Loch Linnhe’s Corran Narrows links the wider Lochaber area with communities in the Ardnamurchan peninsula in the west.

The alternative journey by road around the loch takes about two hours.

Figures in the report suggest costs were rising across the six services.

They include overall engine repair costs forecasted to rise from a figure of £326,158 in 2014-15 to £618,000 in 2026-27.

Over the same period, fuel costs are expected to increase from £169,843 to £264,181.

In November, the Scottish government confirmed that £28m earmarked for road improvements in the Highlands would be used to replace the Corran Ferry’s 24-year-old vessel and its 50-year-old Maid of Glencoul.

The money was initially allocated for an upgrade of the Longman interchange on the A9, but councillors appealed to the Scottish government to change investment priorities.