For how long people have made the sea crossing over the Kylerhea Narrows, no-one knows for certain, but it is part of a route that is certainly ancient and of great historical significance. The stretch of water on which the ferry now travels is the shortest distance from the Isle of Skye to the mainland, a distance of only 3 cables, or 550 metres.

This was the crossing that was used for many centuries by the cattle drovers who used to swim hundreds of their small black Highland cattle over here every season to begin their long trek south to the cattle fairs in the Lowlands. You can still see the stone ramp they used to disembark on the Glenelg side, although it is told that those caught by a fast ebbing tide would sometimes be swept round the point to the south to make their landfall on the shores of Glenelg Bay!

Martin Martin noted that there was a ferry service here in the late 17th century, and, largely inspired by
Martin’s account, a crossing was made from here to Skye in 1773 by Dr Samuel Johnson, accompanied by his companion and biographer, James Boswell. Both of these illustrious literary gents left a detailed account of their journey here and of their passage onwards (not actually directly across to Kylerhea, but to Armadale on the Sleat peninsula).

The road on which they travelled to Glenelg was not so much a drove road but a military road which had been constructed some fifty years perviously and led to the massive barracks at Bernera, still (barely) in use at the end of the 18th century but now a ruin. The present road into Glenelg still follows much of the route of the old one, and the fact that the Government felt it necessary to fund the construction of both road

and barracks demonstrates the huge strategic importance of this route in former times.

In fact, the ferry crossing at Glenelg was to continue to be the most important route to and from Skye until the building of the railways leading respectively to Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig in Victorian times.

There has been a car ferry service here since 1934, although there was an extended break through the Second World War when access to local waters was restricted due to their importance as a centre for naval operations.