Jura Journey - Day 3

Our next stop is the old ramped ferry pier at Lagg. Built in the early years of the nineteenth century, cattle from Colonay, Islay and Jura went to the mainland from here.

Lagg Jetty - where the cattle marched down

The second photo is of the inner quay at Lagg, built 'for preservation of the ferry'. There was a drover's inn (I am not sure if it was the house in the photo), and you can read some descriptions of what the drovers experienced here in A.R.B. Haldane's The Drove Roads of Scotland.  For example: "...we found every corner of the inn crowded with drovers who had been detained by the weather for several days, and were passing their time, as was their wont, in riotous and continuous drinking."

Lagg inner quay - looking back to Jura

Below, six miles away at Keills on the mainland, was the other end of the ferry. What a sight it would be to see a herd of fine Jura cattle making landfall here and marching off to market. If the subject of old piers interests you, see Proceeding of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Vol 117.

Keills jetty - where the cattle marched up (Jura in the distance)

Keills - North Quay