A brief history of Stromeferry
25 years ago there were two car ferries that provided a ferry service. Whilst you could get a train from Stromeferry to Loch Carron village and Applecross the only route for a car was via Inverness! There were queues over a km winding up the road to the top of the hill! The ferry owner made a lot of cash in the summer! There was a village shop, food kiosk and a post office. The hotel (currently derelict) had a roaring trade. Cars became increasingly popular, so much so that the authorities considered removing the railway entirely and replacing it with a road!
Fortunately common sense prevailed and they made the railway single track (trains pass each other at Strathcarron station) and put in a single track road with passing places. Once this was completed the ferryman parked deserted the boats on the shore to rust away and laughed all the way to the bank. This is why the road sign to Stomeferry says: (No ferry). The village is referred to in Iain Banks' novel Complicity, in which the writer mentions this road sign.
Also in Stromeferry was a small police station house, two churches (now converted into houses) a post office, village shop and large station yard and wooden platform buildings.
The Stromeferry Riot
In 1888 there was a clash between the Highland Christian way of living and the capitalist ways from the south of Scotland and beyond.
Most locals strictly observed the Sabbath – Sunday was a day was for worship. The boats coming in on Saturdays were repeatedly late in meaning that the cranes were being operated into the early hours of Sunday morning. Despite several demands from the local ministers (church people) for this to stop the warning were ignored. Over 400 people gathered in Stromeferry to protest and the Stationmaster had to call for more Police recruits to come from Inverness.
The S.S. Ferret
A ferry used over a hundred years ago, was a strong ship, weighing 346 tons, was reported missing In 1880, feared to be lost sea. However, the following year, a policeman from Glasgow spotted the ship in Melbourne, Australia. It was discovered that Ferret had been stolen in the Clyde, sailed to Cardiff for stocks of coal, then sailed to Gibraltar, doubling back in the Mediterranean, and then crossing the Atlantic to Brazil, and then to Melbourne where an attempt was made to sell her.
Thanks to the policeman, the plot was foiled, and the thieves were imprisoned. The S.S. Ferret was finally wrecked in a storm in 1920.