AN absentee landowner taking fees from a community running a historic Highland ferry is “not just”, the local MP has said.
Angus Macdonald, the MP for Skye, spoke out amid growing concerns for the future of the MV MV Glenachulish, which is reputedly the last manually operated turntable ferry in existence.
Operated by the Isle of Skye Community Interest Company (CIC), the ferry service crosses the route between Glenelg on the mainland and Kylerhea in Skye and employs 22 local people either part- or full-time.
However, an agreement with the landowner on the Skye side – Richard Oliphant of that Ilk – due to ancient “rights to ferry” means that the CIC must pay him a percentage of their turnover each year, and a payment can never be less than a previous year.
After a bumper 2025 saw Oliphant of that Ilk paid around £10,000, there are concerns that future years’ payments could put the ferry service in doubt.
A petition calling for “Scottish politicians to step in and change the rules to support this incredible ferry” has been signed almost 30,000 times.
The National understands the CIC will take over administration of the petition after it gathered more support than the Skye local who set it up could manage alone.
LibDem MP Macdonald said: "The Glenelg ferry is both a valuable community resource and a little piece of history on the west coast.
"I would hope that the landowner could be prevailed upon to recognise that this is not a significant commercial enterprise and extracting an ever-increasing toll is not just or practical.
"I must say that to many these ancient rights look increasingly unjustifiable.
“If a sensible compromise cannot be hammered out, it would not surprise me if the community were to push for a legislative solution and I would back them in doing so.”
Locals have pointed out that the owner of “rights to ferry” on the Glenelg side of the route, the Burton Property Trust, never asked for any payments and have now transferred ownership of the right to the community.
Donnie Macdonald, the head skipper of the MV Glenachulish, said: “This absolutely makes my blood boil. We have to find £10,000 a year for Richard Oliphant. He does nothing to help this community service. He even charged us during Covid.
“And under another old rule, he himself expects to get over on the ferry for free. We have to accept that but it is very annoying.
“I meet people from all over the world and they can see that it is unfair. It doesn’t surprise me that the petition is filling up quickly as it’s obvious to everyone that it’s ridiculous situation.”
He added: “It’s really up to the politicians to help us out here. There are over 20 jobs in the area dependent on the ferry and the tea-room.
“It’s a service for the community and if changes are needed to sort this situation out, the politicians need to do that.”
Oliphant of that Ilk has not responded to repeated attempts to contact him.
He made headlines in 2003 after hiring Hugh Peskett – the acclaimed genealogist who traced Ronald Reagan’s family to the tiny Irish village of Ballyporeen – to prove his claim to the chiefship of clan Oliphant.
The Scotsman reported at the time that the “millionaire City banker” had funded a 16-year trawl through historical records to oust his Perthshire farmer cousin who had been thought to hold the clan chief title.
