Kylesku ( gd, An Caolas Cumhang) is a small, remote fishing hamlet in

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. Until 1984, it was the site of a free ferry.

Village

Kylesku is located where Loch Glencoul 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 (; gd, Ulapul ) is a village and port located in Northern S ...

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 council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

. 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 highest waterfall in the United Kingdom with a sheer drop of . When in full flow it is over three times higher than Niagara Falls. The waterfall can be reache ...

, 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

There was a passenger ferry (a rowing boat) 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 unusual in being free for much of its life. The ''Maid of Kylesku'', a two 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'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...

, 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 Lo ...

Bridge

The ferry service became known as a dreaded bottleneck on the route 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 the Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin in Sutherland. It is listed a ...

in 1984. Opened by the Queen, 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 Group and designed by the architects Arup (intended to complement the natural beauty of the site), 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 thei ...

" and "

Chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nbs ...

" 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)