A ferry tale

Calton has fond memories of the Glenachulish and her sister vessel, the Glenloy, in the days when they plied the narrow waters between North and South Ballachulish.Then, however, the detour was not so great if the ferries were unable to run or had stopped for the night. Now we have a whole community dependent on just one of the ferries to avoid a 140 mile detour and get their kids to school. Hopefully the Glenachulish will be back in service by tomorrow after grounding last week, however a long-term solution needs to be found, either in terms of a bridge or substantial improvements to the road. Given similar problems of landslides now regularly closing the 'rest and be thankful', perhaps some of the money which the Scottish Government has earmarked for infrastructure projects should be directed towards helping keep these vital lifeline roads open as a priority over dualling the A9, which would be nice but is not essential.