South Kessock (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

: ''Ceasag a Deas'', meaning "Ceasag's Place") is an area of the city of

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

in the

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 ...

council area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is situated to the city's north at the mouth of the

River Ness The River Ness () is a short river in the Great Glen of Scotland. It begins at Loch Dochfour, at the northern end of Loch Ness, and flows northeast towards the city of Inverness, where it empties into the Moray Firth. It runs parallel to t ...

. It is a traditionally

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

area. The neighbourhood borders on

Merkinch Merkinch (from the Scottish Gaelic: ''Marc-Innis'', meaning "The Horse Island") is an area of the city of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Originally an island separated from the rest of the city by a small river to the south known as The A ...

and is also known, somewhat disparagingly, as the Ferry. This refers to the now-defunct ferry service running from South to

North Kessock North Kessock (Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic: ''Ceasag a Tuath'' or ''Aiseag Cheasaig'') is a village on the Black Isle north of Inverness. Description North Kessock is the first village encountered over the Kessock Bridge. Now bypassed by the main r ...

, across the Beauly Firth. The ferry operated for over 500 years, prior to the opening of the

Kessock Bridge The Kessock Bridge () carries the A9 trunk road across the Beauly Firth at Inverness, Scotland. Description The Kessock Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge across the Beauly Firth, an inlet of the Moray Firth, between the village of North Kesso ...

in 1982. Early in the evening of 23 February 1894, the Kessock Ferry was caught in a storm leading to the deaths of three ferrymen and three coastguards attempting to rescue them. The tragedy was immortalised by the poet

William McGonagall William McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet and public performer. He gained notoriety as an poetaster, extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. He wrote ...

in ''The Kessack Ferry-Boat Fatality'.'' The name Kessock derives from the Gaelic ''Ceasag'', the name of an ancient

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

saint once living in the area. South Kessock features in two novels by local author Alex Mabon: ''The Lads from the Ferry'' and ''War of the Ferry''.

Merkinch Local Nature Reserve

The area has a diverse set of wildlife habitats with a wide variety of plants and animals and as such was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in November 2007.

Local Nature Reserve is the 50th local nature reserve in Scotland and is the only one situated in the

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

. The reserve consists of tidal pools partially connected to the sea, as well as open grassland and wooded areas. Habitats include

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

, freshwater marsh with

reed beds A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

, scrub and wooded embankments. Common wildlife at the reserve include roe deer, owls, weasels, herons, cormorants and a variety of wading birds. Kingfishers and the occasional osprey have also been known to frequent the area. The area, alongside

Chanonry Point Chanonry Point (Scottish Gaelic: ''Rubha na Cananaich'') lies at the end of Chanonry Ness, a Spit (landform), spit of land extending into the Moray Firth between Fortrose and Rosemarkie on the Black Isle, Scotland. Lighthouse An active lightho ...

and South Sutor, was the site of a 1991 European Cetacean Society study into dolphins and whales of the surrounding ocean.

References

External links

South Kessock on Merkinch.info

Merkinch Local Nature Reserve
Areas of Inverness {{Inverness-geo-stub