Kylesku () is a fishing hamlet in

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. Until 1984, it was the site of a free ferry. It takes its name from Caolas Cumhann (pronounced "Kyles Cuan"), Gaelic for "narrow strait", which is the channel just to the west of the village that connects Loch Glencoul and Loch Glendubh to Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin .

Village

Kylesku is located where

Loch Glencoul ''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or " sea inlet" in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes called a lochan. Lochs which ...

and Loch Gleann Dubh join to form a sea passage

Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin (Gaelic for "White Cairn Loch"), or Loch Cairnbawn, is a sea inlet off Eddrachillis Bay on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands north of Ullapool Ullapool (; ) is a village and port located in the civil parish of ...

which links to

Eddrachillis Bay Eddrachillis Bay (Scottish Gaelic: Eadar Dà Chaolas- "between two kyles", Kylesku and Laxford) is a bay on the north-west coast of Sutherland, Scotland. It lies north of Assynt and is at the mouth of the Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin, also known as ...

. It is in the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

. The village stretches back along the road from the slipway that used to be the southern end of the ferry crossing. Now by-passed by the main road carried over the bridge, the Kylesku Hotel overlooks the slipway. Nearby is

Eas a' Chual Aluinn Eas a' Chual Aluinn () in the parish of Assynt, Sutherland, Highland, Scotland, is the tallest waterfall in the United Kingdom with a sheer drop of . At full flow, is nearly four times taller than Niagara Falls. The waterfall can be reached by a ...

, Britain's highest waterfall. This can be visited on a boat trip aboard ''Rachael Clare''. Kylesku sits at the centre of a area which has become Scotland's first ' Global Geopark'. There is abundant wildlife and a wide range of outdoor pursuits in or on the lochs, mountains and white sandy beaches, including bird watching, seal and otter spotting, fishing, climbing and hill walking.

Ferry

A rowing boat provided a ferry service across the strait in the early 19th century. Commercial traffic mainly comprised cattle on their way to central Scotland, and they had to swim across. Over the years, various ferries came and went, and small car-carrying ferries first appeared between the wars. The Kylesku Ferry was free for much of its existence. The ''Maid of Kylesku'', a four-car ferry, was built for the Kylesku crossing in the early 1950s, where it was operated until replaced by the ''Queen of Kylesku'' in 1967. When no longer needed, the ''Maid of Kylesku'' was beached on the opposite side of the bay. In 1976, the , built in

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns#Scotland, Three Towns'. Ardrossan is loca ...

, became the first vessel capable of carrying fully loaded commercial vehicles. After the opening of the Kylesku Bridge, it was used as the

Corran Ferry The Corran Ferry crosses Loch Linnhe at the Corran Narrows, south of Fort William, Scotland. Description Operated by Highland Council, the Corran Ferry is one of few remaining scheduled mainland vehicle ferries in Scotland. The route crosses ...

Bridge

The ferry service became a major bottleneck on the route as traffic increased, and was replaced by the

Kylesku Bridge The Kylesku Bridge (officially known since 2019 by its Gaelic name Drochaid a' Chaolais Chumhaing) is a distinctively curved concrete box girder bridge in north-west Scotland that crosses Caolas Cumhann (Gaelic for "narrow strait", pronounced "K ...

in 1984. Opened by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

, the bridge is long and crosses a stretch of water. The curving, five-span, continuous, pre-stressed concrete, hollow bridge has been described as one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. The bridge was built by

Morrison Construction Morrison Construction is a large construction business, which was acquired by Galliford Try in 2006. History Morrison Construction was founded by Alex Morrison in Tain, Scotland in 1948. Although ownership of the company would pass through severa ...

and designed by the architects Arup, and it has won several design and construction awards. A cairn on the north side, erected in 1993, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the formation of the XIIth Submarine Flotilla, a unit of "

X-craft The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44. It was substantially larger than the original Chariot manned torpedo. Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to the ...

" and "

Chariot A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...

" miniature submarines, which trained in Lochs Glendhu and Glencoul from 1943.

Footnotes

{{Reflist Ferry transport in Scotland Populated places in Sutherland Transport in Highland (council area)