Jura, Lagg Harbour, Slipway

NR 597 785 This harbour is situated on the W shore of Rubh' a' Chamais, the promontory that encloses the E side of Lagg Bay, some 14.5 km NNE of Craighouse. In the early 19th century the 9 km sea-crossing from Lagg to Keills in Knapdale was the normal route for cattle, not only from Jura itself, but for those landed from Colonsay at Loch Tarbert and for over 2,500 animals annually from Islay, which were driven over a hill-road from Feolin on the Sound of Islay. (Haldane 1952) An application for a Parliamentary Road to link the ferries at Lagg and Feolin was made in 1804, and following an inadequate survey by George Langlands a new line was established and piers for both terminals designed in 1806 by David Wilson, a Lochgilphead surveyor. Archibald Campbell of Jura himself undertook the contract in the following year, and work on the piers began in 1809, when the road was well advanced. (Highland Roads, Second Report 1805; Third Report 1807, SRO, Campbell of Jura Collection, GD 64/1/108, Roads; plan by G Langlands and Son, SRO, RHP 11,646, plan by D Wilson, RHP 11,651) Wilson's designs were modified by James Hollinsworth, civil engineer at Crinan, and at Lagg alterations to the slipway increased the estimated cost from #88.9s. 6d. to #375.6s. 4d. Both piers were usable in autumn 1810, although final approval from Thomas Telford's inspector was not certified until two years later, when the Keills-Lagg ferry became the official postal route for mails to Jura and Islay.( Highland Roads, Fifth Report, 1811; Sixth Report, 1813, SRO GD 64/1/108; Haldane 1971) An extension of the road from Lagg to Loch Tarbert was constructed in 1814. (Highland Roads, Ninth Report, 1821)

The old road runs past the former inn at the head of the bay, and along the W shore of the promontory. Close to its rocky N extremity, a curving approach-causeway bounded by parapets of mortared rubble, 3.5m apart and about 1.2m high, leads to a slipway which can be used at all states of the tide. The combined length of the slipway and its approach is about 60m, and both are constructed of massive irregular blocks of the local epidiorites and quartzites. The 1807 building-contract for the roads and piers stipulated that 'the Rock on the East side of the Point of Lagg (where the Cattle are boated at present) shall be brought to a regular inclined plane', and that the rock on the W side should also be reduced to form a slipway, (Highland Roads, Third Report, 1807) but the existing structure owes its substantial character to Hollinsworth's revised design of 1809. There is no evidence of construction on the E shore of the promontory.

Some 40m SW of the slipway, in the tidal part of the bay, there is the curving pier, 35m long and 4m wide, built 'for preservation of the ferry boats'. Built of rubble masonry, with a coping and pavement of vertical slabs, the seaward face is battered and the rounded pierhead incorporates a stair to the S, as in Wilson's design-drawing of 1806.(SRO, RHP 11,651)

RCAHMS 1984, visited June 1982.