South Queensferry, The Binks

NT17NW 222 c. 1293 7855

This is the most distinguished of the old landing-places about Queensferry. History states that it was here that Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm Caen-mohr landed and embarked when passing the Firth of Forth. It is quite evident from its appearance that it has been a landing place. The landing place is on the W side of a ledge of rocks on the west side of the present harbour and extends to nearly low water. The edge is perpendicular and from 6 to 8 feet high and bears evident marks of having been roughly dressed with the hammer etc. In one place it is paved with small blocks of stone about 2ft in length and the bolts and mooring rings are still in the rock, which is much foot worn.

O S Name Book, 1855.

(Listed under South Queensferry, West Lothian; Ferry Landings: location cited as NT 1378, NT 1478). What is almost certainly a trace of an ancient landing may be seen on the W side of Binks Rock [The Binks: NT 1322 7338], some 80yds [73.2m] W of the harbour NT17NW 71.00, the proximity of the Carmelite church [NT17NW 11] and convent helping to support this suggestion. At the point in question, a tidal rock-ridge, now made virtually inaccessible by a rubbish-dump on the foreshore, has been cut back to a straight line and vertical face; a length estimated at some 60ft [18.3m] protrudes from under the dump, and the face stands up to about 5ft [1.5m] above the sand. A ring-headed bolt, which must once have held a mooring-ring, is set in the top of the ridge, just above high-water mark. This cutting may be compared with those at Dysart (Old Harbour [NT39SW 20] and Earlsferry [NT49NE 39]. The Binks Rock may or may not have been the subject of a dispute of 1342 between James de Dundas and the Abbot of Dunfermline, which was concerned with the ownership of certain rocks used for ferry landings on the S shore.

The exigencies of wind and tide made it necessary, before the days of steamers, for the Passage boats to have more than a single landing-place on either shire. In 1710, therefore, there was a pier at the Hawes Pier [NT17NW 172.00] in addition to South Queensferry harbour [NT17NW 71.00], and in 1794 there were several landings on both N and S. After 1810, when the Ferry was put under Trustees, new jetties were built at Long Craig [NT17NW 186] (1812), at the Hawes Inn [NT17NW 112], and at Port Edgar [NT17NW 181.00] as well as at North Queensferry [NT18SW 98.00].

A Graham 1971.