After a varied career in the army, farming and e-commerce Mark Ashley-Miller from Dorset embarked on a voyage circumnavigating the British Isles with the aim of visiting every harbour and meeting every Harbour Master and in the process raising funds for The Seafarer’s Charity. Mark visited Mallaig Harbour and met up with our Harbour Master James McLean in 2020.
Mark has written a book about his travels and below is the feature on Mallaig Harbour.
It will be obvious to everyone in Mallaig that the works on the overnight ferry berth are progressing. You can see the crane from almost everywhere within the village! For one week we had two cranes, while one built the other. The crane will be in-situ until mid-December, while the piling works are being undertaken. The contractors have built a temporary platform over the Harbour to enable these piling works. The first stage of filling in the underwater ‘hole’ on the linkspan berth was completed over two nights on the 8th and 9th October. To do this, we had to ask the Coruisk to vacate the berth overnight for these two nights. Unfortunately, this coincided with an issue with one of the Loch Nevis’ Schottel systems, which meant that the Loch Nevis was unable to manoeuvre safely. The Master of the Coruisk deemed that there were no other safe berths in Mallaig or at Armadale, which resulted in the vessel relocating to Craignure for the first evening, and then on to Kennacraig as there were no other available berths for the second evening. This obviously caused disruption to the Mallaig-Armadale service, which was then compounded by the Loch Bhrusda having to be redeployed to the Small Isles service to cover for the Loch Nevis. We didn’t take the decision lightly to ask the Coruisk to vacate the berth, but the dive inspection the week previously had uncovered an issue that had to be resolved as quickly as possible so there was no alternative. CalMac are now operating on their winter timetable, so hopefully there will be less need for disruption to ferry services as a result of the works.
Still on ferries, the AGM of the Sound of Sleat Ferry User’s Group will take place on 12th November. It will be hosted jointly by us in the Harbour Office, and by Sleat Community Trust in their offices on Skye, or you can request a link to join online. The group are still keen to have the wider views of local businesses and the community in general, so that any requests made to CalMac are backed by evidence, and represent the views of people locally. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey, if you are at all impacted by ferry operations. It can be accessed from the following link https://forms.gle/naKm14UNExXidYMX7 or search for ‘Sound of Sleat Ferry Users Group’ on Facebook, and the post with the link to the survey is pinned to the top of the page.
Throughout the works, we are maintaining access to the Outer Harbour for vessels, but we have obviously lost the use of the ‘stub’ pier, where the Loch Bhrusda would normally lie, for the duration. This has meant that, through October, the Bhrusda has been lying where the Loch Fyne would lie. We have had various operations going on, including smolt transfers in the Outer Harbour and a busy period for fish feed, which has resulted in some of the Aquaculture vessels having to use the inner harbour. We’ve had lots of comments on the fact that both the MV Settler, and her ‘twin’ the MV Ocean Aquila were lying alongside one another at the point of the fish pier at various times throughout the month. It is not particularly uncommon for us to have both vessels in the Harbour, but they would normally have had separate berths in the Outer Harbour so it would not be so obvious!
The Marina is now closed for the season. October was a very quiet month, probably as a result of Storm Amy chasing all the remaining yachts south at the start of the month – although we did have a Navy vessel, HMS Biter, in over the weekend of the 18th and 19th October, and we have had a couple of visits from RNLI Lifeboats on passage. Storm Amy also caused a bit of damage to pontoon moorings and chains, so some work will have to be undertaken over the winter months to resolve this.
Coast Construction Management were able to come and repair some of the other damage that was done by the storm, having hired a long-reach cherry picker from Inverness. Unfortunately, it didn’t have quite long enough a reach to replace the canopy on the high tower light that was damaged, so we need a Plan B for this! We’re hoping that we will be able to take advantage of some of the crane works going on as part of the overnight ferry berth to replace the canopy.
We were all saddened this month by the passing of James Hepburn, our Harbour Master’s father-in-law. James managed George Walker and Sons Fish Sales office in Mallaig for many years, at the height of fishing in Mallaig, and had many tales to tell about his time around the Harbour. Allan Henderson delivered a very heartfelt eulogy at the funeral, including some lighter moments, which I suspect will be published elsewhere in West Word. The sympathies of all at Mallaig Harbour Authority go out to James’ family.
Finally, we are looking forward to welcoming the Screen Machine between Monday 10th and Friday 14th November. Films will be screened on Tuesday 11th, Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th. Obviously, RJ McLeod’s compound has taken up the space that we would normally use for the Screen Machine, so we are going to have to put it on the main pier, down by the CalMac marshalling lanes.
Jacqueline McDonell
Please see Notification of Overnight Ferry Berth Nighttime Working letter from RJ McLeod:-
Most of you will have seen the announcement from Transport Scotland that we have been awarded the funding for the overnight ferry berth. The contract has been awarded to RJ MacLeod through the SCAPE framework, who would like to be on-site as soon as possible, so that the works can be completed while the ferries are on their winter timetable, minimising disruption. At the moment, we are hoping to start the works on 22nd September. Inevitably, there will be some upheaval, and the works and the compound required for the contractors will mean that we are even more tight for space around the Harbour than normal for a few months. It will be great to see the works finally done, and will certainly make life a lot simpler in the Outer Harbour going forward, so hopefully Harbour users can put up with the disruption for a few months. The announcement was made by Fiona Hyslop when she visited the Harbour on Wednesday 13th August. This coincided with me being on annual leave, so the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I am not in the photos!
I have included a diagram showing where the works will take place.
The works will require a bit of juggling of berths in the Outer Harbour, especially while the summer timetable is still in place (until mid-October) and the Loch Fyne and the Loch Bhrusda are still on service. It felt like we just got back on track with the ferries that should have been running on each of the routes, and then the Lochnevis went out of service due to mechanical issues. While this will give us an extra berth to play with if she is not back on service when the works start, it does mean a lot of disruption for the Small Isles. The Lochnevis was due to go for planned maintenance in September but the enforced early start to this left the islands with a much reduced service for a few days.
Other big news last month was the arrival of ‘Miss Marley’ for Milligan Transport Limited on the 15th August. Built by Ardmaleish Boatyard on Bute, and named after Jamie Milligan’s daughter, ‘Miss Marley’ joins the ‘Spanish John’ and ‘Lyrawa Bay’ to provide freight services from Mallaig.
August 4th saw the worst summer storm for many years. We were fortunate in the Harbour that the only ‘casualty’ was a French yacht, ‘Aquarius’, which had been moored at Isleornsay but which had broken its mooring and dragged its anchor, and which had to be rescued by the RNLI Lifeboat. Some of you may have seen the videos of the Lifeboat leaving the Harbour, which were shared on Facebook locally, or the video of the rescue taken from on board the Lifeboat itself. We could hear the distress calls on the VHF in the office, and were watching the yachts on moorings in our own marina rolling so we could understand the panic of the French crew. However, I did have my own moment of panic watching the boat leaving the Harbour after I had gone home to collect my son so he could go and crew the Lifeboat with his father!
The busy season at the Marina has continued, with 496 overnight stays in July, up around 30 on last year. Summer has passed quickly, and Provident has already left for the season, while Eda Frandsen sailed off on 6th September, heading south to Oban initially, before the onward journey to Falmouth. This coincided with our Marina Fun Day, which had been postponed from earlier in the season.
We are also hosting the naming ceremony for the FSV Scotia, on the 10th September, so again, you will have to wait for next month for a full report from this. The introduction of the FSV Scotia has allowed the Harvest Station to have a period of shut-down this month, allowing for deep cleaning and maintenance to be undertaken. The volume of fish being harvested through Mallaig has remained high, it has just been done in a different way. We have also had a busy period in terms of fish feed, with over 4,700 tonnes of feed being shipped through the Feed Shed in July. This is the largest monthly volume shipped since 2019, when the Aqua Senior did most of the deliveries, supplemented by various Ferguson Shipping vessels.
We are glad to report this month that the scaffolding is finally down and the solar panels on the feed shed are operational. We have to thank Ian Bolas of Hebnet, who has stepped in and provided internet connectivity at both the feed shed and power house, so that we are able to monitor electricity production and usage.
Jacqueline McDonell
The big excitement this month around the Harbour has been the pods and pods of dolphins which have been seen throughout the month, all around the area. Those of us lucky enough to live in Mallaig have even been watching them from our houses. They have been very playful, and it’s been easy to see where they got their Gaelic name ‘Leumadair’, which is from leum – to jump! Such large pods of dolphins are always a good sign of lots of feeding in the water, which bodes well for our local fishing fleet.
A few months ago we had a film crew around the Harbour, filming local fisher(wo)man, Erin MacKenzie. The result of this filming was a new documentary, part of the ‘Our Lives’ series on BBC, ‘Female Fishermen – Beyond the Buoys’. If you missed it, you can catch up on iplayer.
Those of you familiar with the ice plant will know that it has never worked as successfully as we hoped, and that over the years, we have had various issues with it. However, we suspect that this month’s issues will not be recurring very often. During the heatwave over the weekend of the 12th and 13th July, the compressors could not cope with the heat! Despite Hugh and Danny’s best efforts over the weekend, knowing that we had 12 tonnes of ice due to go out on the Monday, we had to admit defeat and call in the Engineer, who reported several similar issues throughout Scotland that weekend, all caused by the heatwave!
The Marina has continued to be busy throughout the month, with 427 overnight stays, almost the same as last year’s 423. I mentioned a few months ago that Scottish Seafarms had installed a public access defibrillator at their offices across from the Harbour Office, and that we were relocating ours to the Marina to provide some coverage at that end of the village. Thanks to Colin and Callum King, this is now installed in a prominent position on the front of the Marina office, and is accessible 24/7.
By the time you read this, we will hopefully have both the Coruisk and the Lord of the Isles back on service from Mallaig. The Coruisk returned to service on Friday 25th July, followed by the Lord of the Isles on Saturday 26th July, and both are due to operate their normal services throughout August and until 7th September. Details of what services will operate from then to the end of the summer timetable in October will be published in early August.
We hosted another meeting of the Sound of Sleat Ferry Users Group on 9th July. Details of the group can be found on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/soundofsleatferrygroup/ A short survey re the ferry disruption has been complied, and we are encouraging all local businesses and organisations who are impacted to please complete the survey – link below https://forms.gle/Tzcg7NzhLs6QVtKU8 . This will give the group evidence to strengthen our voice in discussions with CalMac. I was able to meet with Kate Forbes MSP on 22nd July, and one of the topics for our discussion was the ferry services, and the infrastructure required in Mallaig going forward to support them.
On 13th July, some of you may have seen the Tall Ship Shtandart sailing past the Harbour and into Loch Nevis. TS Shtandart was built in Russia, as a replica of the 1703 Frigate commissioned by Peter the Great, and launched in 1999. She was originally making her way to Aberdeen to join the Tall Ships Race. However, due to sanctions imposed when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, which were extended to include replica ships in June 2024, TS Shtandart is not permitted to dock in British Ports, including Aberdeen, and therefore was refused permission to formally participate in the Tall Ships Race. If you want to read more about both sides of the argument, you can access the TS Shtandart website at https://shtandart.eu/ and the ‘No Shtandart in Europe’ website at https://bernardgrua.net/. The ship’s berthing in Loch Nevis did result in a morning of seeking advice from various sources and a bit of a moral dilemma for us in Mallaig as to whether we would allow them to berth and take water if requested. In the end we were thankful that the request did not come, and that Shtandart sailed off North.
The Screen Machine is due to visit from 18th to 20th August. Both the Harvest Station and the FSV Scotia have been very busy discharging salmon, in the evening and overnight. This means that there are 20+ Ferguson’s tankers each night, and a lot of activity in the area where we would normally park the Screen Machine. As a result, we are looking at alternative areas for the August visit, which will be safer for those visiting the cinema, and less noisy. Keep an eye on our Facebook page nearer the time for more details of the location.
Finally this month, a wee reminder that we still have some funding left in our Community Funds. Funds are be available to groups based in the Mallaig Area, who operate on a not for profit basis, are either constituted or incorporated, and who have a dedicated bank account for the organisation. The project being supported should have demonstrable community benefit for the Mallaig area. We can consider support to organisations who are open to a wider community area than purely Mallaig, as long as these organisations can demonstrate benefit to the community in Mallaig. There is a little over £1,000 left, and the closing date for applications for the September Board meeting is 15th August 2025, and for the December meeting is 7th November 2025. If you would like the link to the form (which is very simple to complete) please email me at jacqueline@mallaigharbourauthority.com
Jacqueline McDonell
We’re delighted to be able to report that the new solar powered light has arrived and been installed at the lighthouse, so it is back operational again. Thanks to our own Harbour staff and to Colin and Callum King for their support with this. The new system was designed by Hydrosphere, and comes with the ability for us to keep a check on how well it is performing in various weather states. We were hopeful that this would not be an issue throughout the summer months, but there hasn’t been much sun lately! There are two separate batteries in the system, each providing back up for 30 days – so we have backup to keep the system running for 60 days.
Fishing landings have tailed off a bit in June, with fewer of the larger visiting boats, although some of our more regular visitors have once again been landing locally. The Aquaculture side has been busy though, with a lot of well boat traffic through June which has kept the Outer Harbour busy.
The Marina has also been busy, and we have welcomed back some of the charter yachts, with Eda Frandsen, Bessie Ellen, Lady of Avanel, Selkie and Silurian all using the Harbour and Marina at various points throughout the month. We also had a visit from the superyacht Moonstone’s tenders, while she was moored up Loch Nevis on Friday 20th June. ‘Moonstone’ is 79.2m in length, which is around 1.5 times the length of the Ronja Commander! She is owned by American billionaire brothers Rob and Richard Sands, and her tenders were around the same size as many of the visiting yachts at the Marina. We were not quite at the end of June as I was writing this, but looking at May’s figures for the Marina, it is shaping up to be a good year, with 59 overnight stays in April and 246 in May, compared to 24 in April and 170 in May last year. Hopefully this will continue and we’ll have earned a good contribution towards the cost of the new pontoon fingers by the end of the season!
John and I took a trip to Stornoway for the Scottish Ports Group meeting on the 11th and 12th June. While we were there, Stornoway Port Authority had a visit from their biggest cruise vessel of the year, the ‘Brittania’, which is 330m long. We were lucky enough to get right down onto the new deep water terminal, to see her up close. The new facility in Stornoway is very impressive – although it cost around £40million they have been able to achieve a huge amount with the money, including a 360m long berth and 6.5 hectares of laydown space. John and I were quite envious! We did a wee tour of Ports on our way there and back, ticking off Armadale, Uig, Tarbert, Stornoway and Ullapool, and taking note of what worked at each of them! We have more limited space in Mallaig but did come away with a few ideas for things we would like to see around the Harbour.
It was straight back from Stornoway for our AGM on Friday 13th June. This year marked the retirement of Lorna Spencer as a Board Member. Lorna and Jim Wilson had both served their second terms, but Jim has agreed to stay on and support us with our aspirations to reduce the carbon footprint of the Harbour. We are very grateful to Lorna for all the support she has given us, not only in the last six years as a Board Member, but also previous to that in her former role with CMAL. Although Lorna has retired as a Board Member, she will still be working with us at Mallaig Harbour Authority, providing support with our obligations under the Port and Marine Facilities Safety Code. Lorna’s retiral left a vacancy, and we have appointed Karen Johnston, who brings a wealth of experience in the Aquaculture industry with her; and who we are looking forward to having as a member of the Board going forward.
As with other years, I had prepared a short presentation for the AGM, looking at what we had achieved over the year, and our future plans. In some ways this has been a very frustrating year, with the postponement of the works to the overnight ferry berth, and the closure of the Boatyard after Harland and Wolff fell into administration. However, we have managed to achieve some smaller (but often just as important) projects over the year, and it’s good to reflect on these as well. These included the demolition of the old ice factory; the installation of 5 new pontoon fingers; the purchase of Unit 15 (Andy Race’s Building); and the creation of new shower facilities for fishermen in the Prawn Market. We have a small but hard-working team, who often go above and beyond to make sure that not just the Harbour, but the wider community, functions well. This was recognised by the Chair, who thanked the team for all their work over the year.
Our focus for this coming year will once again be the overnight ferry berth, along with redeveloping Unit 15 and trying to find a resolution for the boatyard to bring it back into some sort of economic use. Last year, we had put together an infographic with some key facts from the Economic Impact Assessment. Everyone agreed that this was a useful format, so I have created something similar for this year, which is published below.
Jacqueline McDonell
Unfortunately, the Lighthouse is still not operational. We have ordered a new solar set up so we are hoping that it will be back up and running within the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are still asking vessels to please take extra care on the approach to Mallaig. The green buoy is still flashing to mark the edge of the channel, providing navigational guidance, and thankfully most vessels using the Harbour are familiar with the approach, but the warnings about the light not being operational are still in force at the moment.
The visiting fishing vessels have continued to land in Mallaig throughout April. We have some smaller visiting vessels using the harbour, as well as larger vessels landing occasionally. Looking at the landings for the financial year ended March 2025, the value of all species landed through Mallaig was just over £5.065million. This is the first time since I began working at the harbour in 2019 than landings have been valued above £5million. By far the majority of the value landed is in shellfish (£4.695 million), with the remainder in white fish and sprats. For the year, around £280k of white fish was landed, with £113k of this landed in February this year by visiting fishing vessels!
The solar panels have yet to be installed, but we are hoping that by the time you read this, they will have been, and that there will have been some sun to make them worthwhile! Loch Shell Engineering have poured the concrete for two of the pillars under Jary’s Wharf, and the contractors were back on site for the spring tides at the end of April to continue works, and hope to finish the last pillar at the end of May.
We’ve engaged an architect to draw up plans to subdivide Unit 15 on the Industrial Estate (formerly occupied by Andy Race). In the meantime, the contractors working on the Co-op building in Mallaig are using it for their base while they replace the compound at the rear of the shop.
The new pontoon fingers have been installed at the Marina. We managed to take a photograph of them just after installation, probably the only time that they will ever all be empty at one time! We’ve had a pretty slow start to the season, despite the good weather in the run up to Easter.
The disruption on the ferry service continues. The Loch Fyne came back in to service in Mallaig on Monday 28th April, and will be operating as a single vessel service. This was initially due to be until Monday 16th June, but latest information is that the Coruisk will not be operational from Mallaig before 5th July. Meanwhile, we are hopeful that sailings to Lochboisdale will resume on Thursday 15th May. The changing picture is a challenge, especially for our Tourism businesses, and if anyone would like to be involved in the newly established ‘Sound of Sleat Ferry User’s Group’, then please get in touch.
In more positive ferry news, the Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, announced at a ‘Crisis Summit’ in Lochboisdale, that the funding for the procurement of a new vessel to replace the Lord of the Isles had been included in the Scottish Government’s budget for 2025/26. Mallaig Harbour Authority have been involved in the working group for this replacement ferry, and the business case is due to go before Transport Scotland in May 2025. The replacement vessel will have implications for the infrastructure in Mallaig, so we are currently undertaking some investigative works to determine the most appropriate way forward in providing new infrastructure. We have also resubmitted our business case to Transport Scotland for the overnight ferry berth with the hope that this will be approved and works can start in September.
The British Ports Association’s ‘Fishing Ports Group’ meeting took place in Grimsby on 9th and 10th April. Unfortunately, this was just before our Board Meeting on the 11th so I was unable to attend, but John MacPhee went to represent Mallaig Harbour. Despite some challenges with public transport (trains rather than ferries this time!) he enjoyed his visit, and was made very welcome by Martin and Danny from Grimsby Fish Market.
All the works being undertaken on the Harbour have given Rob Fairley some new subjects to draw, and his exhibition of people working around the Harbour over the years is currently running in Mallaig Heritage Centre, and will be until the end of the year. The cost of the infrastructure for this exhibition was one of the projects that we agreed to support when our Board met to discuss the applications for funding in April. We had applications totalling £11,300 for a budget of £5,000 so we had some tough decisions to make, and inevitably, some of the applicants would have been disappointed by the outcome. In addition to £1,000 to Mallaig Heritage Centre, we agreed to fund £500 for Mallaig and District Men’s Shed to purchase tools and equipment; £400 for Mallaig Pool and Leisure to buy equipment for swimming lessons; £900 for Mallaig High School pupils French Trip; £300 for a new shed at the Mackintosh Centre, and to continue our sponsorship of Mallaig FC with an award of £1,500. We do still have some funding available to be allocated throughout the year, so please get in touch if you have a project that you would like us to consider supporting.
Jacqueline McDonell
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