- When I first heard the idea of a turntable ferry,
I assumed it was an early design
before anyone figured out how to do ferries properly.
A modern cross-river ferry is built with the cabin at the side
so cars can drive on and drive off without having to awkwardly reverse.
So, I figured a turntable ferry like this one
is going to be a prototype solution
before anyone figured out how to put the cabin at the side.
Instead of having the cars reverse off,
you turn the whole car deck around.
And yes, that does happen here,
but the real reason for the turntable is more clever than that.
And there's only one of them left anywhere in the world,
here in western Scotland, over the sea to Skye.
- There's been a ferry here since the 1700s, people say;
a vehicle ferry certainly since the 1930s.
This particular ferry has been here since the 1980s,
and it was operated by a man called Roddy MacLeod.
And when the tolls were removed from the Skye Bridge,
he felt probably that the ferry's time was up, really,
'cause you could get across the bridge for nothing,
so who would pay to go on the ferry?
So, the local community banded together and thought,
"We can't have this.
"Not having the ferry is a social experiment
"we don't want to be involved in."
So, a little group of folk got together and saved the ferry
and brought it into community ownership,
which it still is today.
- There is quite a strong current.
The current can be up to nine knots in the strait,
but that's exceptional.
Current and wind together can make things interesting.
The ferry is very seldom
pointing in the direction it's actually going.
Because of the wind and because of the tide,
we often have to set the boat going in a different direction
to allow us to get to where we want to go.
- The water here is tidal and the current is fast.
Simple ferry designs are great
if you've got steady water that's always at the same height.
Your boat arrives, puts down a ramp to the shore,
and the cars can drive on and off.
But if the water's tidal, well, that ramp could need to go
three or four metres up or down
depending on the time of day, so the only way it works
is if you build infrastructure on the riverbanks:
floating pontoons and large ramps
that give the cars enough room to drive up and down.
That's far too big and expensive for somewhere like this,
so the obvious solution is a slipway:
a boat ramp, a long gentle approach to the water.
In a lot of places, that does work.
Sail up to the water's edge, drop a ramp,
and everyone stays dry no matter the water's height.
But that means you need a long, long slipway
and, importantly, your boat needs to be lined up straight.
Here in this narrow channel,
the current can be so strong that isn't possible.
Even if you could line up straight reliably,
you can only tie the boat off at the front,
so the back's probably going to swing out a bit.
So, what you want to do is what a passenger ferry does:
pull up alongside the slipway and let people get off sideways.
Great for people, not so useful for cars.
And that's where the turntable comes in.
- The turntable is a remarkable piece of Victorian engineering.
It was based on the old railway turntable system.
Cars could come onto the boat from any jetty
at any state of the tide to then be turned round
and be able to drive off.
Usually, it's two, but one person can turn it.
A lot of oil and grease is expended
in keeping it as smooth as we can!
The way that the boat is designed,
it draws virtually no draught at all forward
and it's only four-and-a-half feet at the stern,
so it can come alongside in very shallow water.
That was the part of the design that makes them so versatile.
Very, very, very rare indeed that we can't work.
It would have to be an exceptionally low tide.
Before the invention of the roll-on/roll-off ferry,
these were the original roll-on/roll-off ferries.
- Now, there's been a bridge across to Skye
north of here since 1995,
so these days this is mostly used just by locals
and as a tourist attraction in the summer.
But if you are in this area, well, I'd recommend taking a diversion
and driving across this way
because there's only one place in the world
where you can drive off a turntable like this.
Thank you very much!