WEALTHY landowners cannot be allowed to “trample over our history”, an MSP has said amid concerns about the future of a historic Scottish ferry said to be the last of its kind in the world.
Over the weekend, The National reported on the situation facing the MV Glenachulish – the “last manually operated turntable ferry in existence” – which serves the crossing from Glenelg on the mainland to Kylerhea in Skye.
An agreement signed with the landowner on the Skye side – former financier Richard Oliphant of that Ilk, the chief of clan Oliphant – means that the Isle of Skye Ferry Community Interest Company (CIC) must pay him a percentage of their revenue each year due to ancient “rights to ferry”, which reputedly date back to the time of the Lords of the Isles.
A quirk in the agreement means that the CIC can never pay Oliphant of that Ilk less than he received in a previous year, which has cast doubt on the future of the ferry service following a bumper 2025 which saw the landowner paid around £10,000.
“If something catastrophic happens … [and] we still have to pay him £10,000, that's the end of the ferry company, its operation here, and all of the benefits that it brings to the local community,” Jo Crawford, the CIC’s chief executive, told The Sunday National.
She added: “The Community Empowerment Act has legislation in place for salmon fishing rights and mineral rights over land, but not rights to ferry because it's so unusual, so we can't even use that legislation to do something about this.”
Now, Green MSP Ariane Burgess – who represents the Highlands and Islands – has pledged to look at any “loopholes” in the law.
“We cannot allow wealthy landowners to trample over our history and block services like this that local people have relied on for generations,” Burgess told The National.
“The Glenelg–Kylerhea ferry is far more than a way of getting from A to B. It supports local people and jobs and is a unique part of the community’s local heritage.
“This is something that my team and I will look at. If there are loopholes in our land reform laws that are putting services like this at risk, then they need to be closed.
“The service has only survived because local people fought to keep it going. We should be doing everything we can to make sure it has a secure future and supporting them in doing that.”
The Glenelg-Kylerhea crossing goes over a former drovers’ route in use for at least 400 years.
The community took ownership of the ferry two decades ago after its former operator put it on sale due to the Skye Bridge becoming toll-free. There were concerns, Crawford said, that the loss of the ferry would have an irreversible impact on the Glenelg community.
“It's a dead-end down here without a ferry service,” she said. “It would have changed the peninsula entirely.”
When the CIC was established, it was discovered that “rights to ferry” were held both by Oliphant of that Ilk on the Skye side, and the Burton Property Trust on the Glenelg side.
The trust has since given its rights to the community, while Oliphant of that Ilk extracts fees.
Oliphant of that Ilk 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.
Oliphant of that Ilk told the paper that there had been "no recognised or official chief of the Oliphant clan before my claim, and therefore it was not a challenge to anyone else’s title".
Oliphant of that Ilk has not responded to repeated attempts at contact by The National.
