By the time you read this, the election will have been and gone, and we will have a new government. The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation welcomed two of the prospective candidates for our area to Mallaig Harbour on Friday 28th June to talk to them about issues pertinent to the industry.
We have continued to be busier than during the past few years with visiting fishing vessels, so the Harbour has had a bit of a buzz about it from this. For the first five months of the year there have been over £2million worth of landings through the Harbour, which compares well to last year’s £1.25million at the same time! Unfortunately, it hasn’t come without a bit of hassle, including the toilet in the prawn market having to be closed temporarily as the cistern was hauled off the wall. Hopefully this is an isolated incident.
We hoped last month that the disruption to ferry services was past, but unfortunately this was not the case. From mid-June, the MV Loch Fyne was redeployed to cover the Largs-Cumbrae route, initially leaving us with only the MV Coruisk for a few days until the MV Loch Bhrusda arrived to supplement the timetable. Latest information is that the MV Loch Fyne will remain on the Largs-Cumbrae route for the whole of July, until the MV Loch Shira is back on service, and will then require some modifications before returning to Mallaig, hopefully from around mid-August. This does mean that there is slightly reduced capacity on the Mallaig-Armadale service, and that some sailings are not available to coaches so please check on the CalMac website before you travel.
Some more drilling was undertaken in the Outer Harbour in preparation for the overnight ferry berth works, and thankfully this didn’t flag any major issues, so we are still working away in the background to try and make this happen over the winter months.
Yachting season is in full swing, with lots of foreign yachts around this year – many of them French. Eda Frandsen has been in Stornoway for a few weeks, but is now back operating from Mallaig, and the Provident, Blue Clipper and Lady of Avanel have all been in the Harbour at various times. We are gearing up for the group of yachts displaced by the Ocean Clipper Race being in Mallaig, and are hoping to have our annual Marina Fun Day to coincide with their visit, on the 13th July. As usual, there will be a barbecue and some children’s activities on the day. Our hanging baskets are back up providing a bit of colour round at the Marina – thanks to Jill from Ardshealach Lodge for replanting these for us. We’ve also added another splash of colour with a lifebelt personalised for us by Dawn at Magpie Makes, so although the weather might not have been very bright, at least the Marina Building looks welcoming!
Our AGM went well on Friday 14th June, with a good attendance on the day, and some interesting questions, both about the Economic Impact Assessment, and the wider Harbour Operations. We are grateful to Mark and Leeanne from MKA Economics who came along on the day, as well as to all those who attended and gave us feedback. At the AGM we re-appointed Helen Wedd, David MacDonald and Sandra McLean to serve a further three-year term as Board Members, and Gavin Davis was re-appointed as Chair. Gavin’s appointment was for a period of four years, as at the end of the four years he will have served the maximum term and will have to step down from the Board.
It has felt like a month of meetings, most of them done online, but on 27th June, Arijit and I attended the Scottish Ports Group Meeting. This was held in Inverness, and included a coach tour around the various ports that will make up the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport. These are Global Energy Port of Nigg, Port of Cromarty Firth, Highland Rural Deephaven, Port of Inverness and Haventus Port of Ardersier. Some of them are more advanced in their operations than others, but there has been much talk about the Green Freeport, and it was incredible to see the scale of the facilities that are part of it. Ardersier at the moment is effectively a huge building site – but one that you could almost fit the whole village of Mallaig into – never mind just the Harbour! There is an interactive map on the website www.greenfreeport.scot for those who are interested in finding out more, but even the headline numbers of 520 Hectares of industrial land (1,280 acres or 853 football pitches!) and 3.564m of quayside are quite incredible!
Last, but not least, we lease two of our offices above the Prawn Market to Studio Mustard. They were doing some work around the Harbour for another local business, and shared with us some drone photos of the Harbour. You can see them all on our Facebook page, but I’ve shared one here. It might be the only time there is ever an aerial shot of the boatyard so empty! Harland and Wolff are still developing their plans for redevelopment of the site, and have advertised for two apprentices on their website. These apprentices will spend their first year full time at Inverness College before being brought on site for further training.

Jacqueline McDonell