Inchgarvie Island: on-again off-again

We tend to forget that the sea was easier to travel than land for much of history. So for centuries, the islands in the Forth were in the middle of a very busy and important watery highway. At numerous times in the past they have seen a lot of action, in turn bristling with guns or housing prisoners and plague sufferers.

Inchgarvie is the narrow island closest to the Forth Rail Bridge, sitting almost exactly half way between South Queensferry and the Fife coast. It is the visible tip of a larger crag and tail formation under the water. Long since uninhabited except by wildlife, it’s likely that the island has been used in one way or another by people for almost as long as people have been rowing across the Forth here.

But the earliest evidence of a permanent building is a castle built around 1514. Towards the end of the 1490s the island had been licensed by the crown to the Laird of Dundas at that time, with permission to build a fort to protect against pirates who troubled the area. Dundas didn’t go ahead with the building, and eventually King James IV himself arranged for a fort to be built. Work commenced in 1513. James had been busy subjugating the Lords of the Isles in the west and north, and although was keen to maintain peace with England (and had married King Henry VIII’s daughter in 1503), the current of tension between the two nations would have rendered him keenly aware of the strategic value of the islands in the Forth in terms of defence. The fort on Inchgarvie must have been one of his last building projects before he was killed at Flodden by his father-in-law’s army in September of that year, before the fort was completed.

Building on Inchgarvie stopped until the next year, when Margaret, Lady of Dundas who had lost her husband at Flodden alongside James IV, arranged for the completion of the royal fortress on her island. It was armed with cannon which never saw action. Inchgarvie was garrisoned for a while by French soldiers, stationed there by the French-born Duke of Albany, who had been invited to Scotland by the nobles to help sort out the problems of the power vacuum caused by James IV’s death. The fort was then used as a state prison for nearly 60 years.

 All of the islands in the Forth had at times since the late fifteenth century been used to quarantine sufferers of various contagious illnesses. In 1580 Inchgarvie is recorded as being used as a place of quarantine for plague-sufferers. Ships arriving in Scotland were subject to extremely strict quarantine conditions to try and prevent the spread of the plague from Europe. The regulations from that time make covid lockdowns look mild; anyone breaking quarantine and attempting to leave the islands would be arrested and executed.

Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1650, aiming to dethrone King Charles II. Inchgarvie island’s defences were set up and maintained again, and King Charles II himself visited the island in 1651 to inspect it. The island’s role was to prevent supplies for the English army being passed up the Forth. The Royalist garrison there resisted several attacks by Cromwell’s flotilla, until in July of that year the English army successfully crossed the Forth and landed at North Queensferry, triggering the Battle of Inverkeithing in which the English were victorious. Cromwell cut off supplies to Inchgarvie and managed to capture it. It fell into disrepair after the war, to be drafted into life again a couple of times over the ensuing two centuries to counter various threats.

Construction of the Forth Rail Bridge, which commenced in 1883, bought a new purpose to Inchgarvie island. The foundations for the central cantilever are based on the rocks at the west end of the island, and its location was ideal for a bridge construction office and temporary accommodation for workers, made within the castle ruins. Some of the stone from the castle went into the caissons of the bridge.

Inchgarvie below the Forth Bridge. © Copyright Anne Burgess and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

During both world wars of last century, Inchgarvie was garrisoned. At the outbreak of the Second World War, gunners based on the island were the first in the UK to open fire on enemy aircraft over Britain during a Luftwaffe attack in the Forth, in October 1939. The gun they had was outdated and inadequate, and the decision was made to concentrate on shore based batteries along the coast. So Inchgarvie was vacated by the army for the last time.

Today, wildlife flourishes on the island. Fulmar, eider ducks and cormorants stay there during the breeding season. You can’t visit the island, but from March onwards, the Maid of the Forth runs birdwatching cruises with commentary by RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) staff. The cruises leave Hawes Pier in South Queensferry and passes by Inchgarvie, Inchcolm and Inchmickery on the way to Inchkeith.

After centuries of on-again off-again action, Inchgarvie island returned to being a haven of uninterrupted peace, albeit with visible scars of its sometimes violent history.

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Published in Konect February 2025

Author: Helen-Jane Gisbourne