The "Old Harbour" and "New Harbour" looking downstream, with the pier of the old railway viaduct as a monument to 19th century engineering.

(photos and research by Dave Conner; my thanks to Am Baile and Steve Spencer for their on-line resources)

Although not a navigable river very far upstream, the mouth of the River Ness has been used as a harbour and boat-building area for many hundreds of years. The Port of Inverness’s historic records go all the way back to 1249. <a href="http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_maps.jsp?item_id=127007" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_maps.jsp?item_id=127007</a>

Inverness was noted for shipbuilding since medieval times. As early as 1087 substantial vessels were being built, one from this year becoming flagship of the Venetian navy. In 1249, Hugh de Chastillion, Earl of St. Paul accompanied Louis IX to the crusades on a ship built by his orders in Inverness. Through the centuries various kinds of ship were built in Inverness including the frigate built by Cromwell's men to sail Loch Ness. <a href="http://www.nessriver.co.uk/pages/nessriver/invernessHarbour.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.nessriver.co.uk/pages/nessriver/invernessHarbour.html</a>

The citadel, built by Oliver Cromwell in 1652-58, and which was demolished in 1660, was provided with a moat, one section of which was used as a dock until finally filled in as part of harbour improvements in the 19th century.

The first quay was built in Inverness c.1650 at a cost of £300. Upstream of the Citadel, and as far up as a boat could navigate, 'The Old Harbour' was situated between where are now Waterloo Bridge and the Railway Viaduct. This allowed vessels of up to 80 tons to dock.

The Shore Street Quay was built in 1675, running 540 feet northwards along Shore street from where the Railway bridge is now. A tax on ale and beer was levied in order to pay primarily for the rebuilding the parish church and secondarily for improvements to the harbour in 1718. The tax was one sixth of a penny for every pint either brewed in Inverness or brought in from elsewhere. Enough money was raised from this that a new quay was built, the Citadel Quay, 674 feet long which opened in 1738.

The 'Citadel' Quay, known as 'The New Harbour' (between the remains of the Citadel and the “Old Harbour”) was begun in 1725, at Shore Street, but lack of funds prevented its completion until the 1790s. Improvements were made to both quays in the early 19th century and the Thornbush Quay on the opposite bank was added in 1817.

As part of the Caledonian Canal (opened 1822), Thomas Telford clearly planned for an improved and more sheltered Harbour for Inverness in terms of the Muirtown Basin, but this never took off as such to the extent he obviously hoped, largely due to the greatly increased size and displacement of vessels which occurred during the period of the Canal’s construction, and which thus could not enter the Canal.

The Inverness Harbour Trust was established by the Inverness Harbour Act (1847). The harbour flourished in the mid-19th century until the opening of railway lines to the north took traffic away. The harbour did work hand in hand with the railway however, and the Harbour Branch of the Railway opened at the same time as the first passenger line (Inverness-Nairn) in 1855. Indeed because there was no rail connection to the rest of the UK, the first locomotives and rolling stock had to be brought to Inverness by sea.

The Harbour line was originally horse-drawn with a wagon turntable on Shore Street to turn (by 90 degrees) each wagon coming down the brae for the Station in order to access the harbour lines. In due course the network of lines was greatly extended – running the length of both “Old Harbour” and New Harbour” - and became primarily locomotive operated.

Improvements were again made to the harbour in the late 19th century and this period saw an increase in steamers and coal carrying vessels to the port. The Old Harbour (upstream of the railway viaduct) fell into disuse as larger vessels were unable to access it, and it had now been filled in.

Twentieth century developments included a huge increase in cargoes of cement for the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board and an expansion of oil and petrol storage facilities. The oil storage depot which is located within the perimeter of the original Citadel was developed between the wars, and was convenient for the airfield (later RAF Inverness).

In 1977 another quay, 328 feet long was opened to the north of the Citadel Quay, the Longman Quay, and the Harbour has now removed to the newest part, at the river mouth.

While the Citadel Quay remains in use for oil tankers, the former New Harbour (Shore Street) is now closed after having been used only for tourist dolphin viewing trips for a number of years, and latterly for container storage. The Flood Alleviation Scheme is currently enclosing the former “New Harbour” within the flood wall, and it remains to be seen what becomes of the enclosed former quay (which bore notices “for development” prior to the wall works commencing.

Harbour operations relocated to the modern new harbour complex in the 1980s. The former Harbourmaster’s House and office, together with weigh-bridge, located just upstream of the railway bridge were demolished some years ago and the area (Portland Place) has now been redeveloped as apartment housing.

The harbour railway gradually fell into disuse and although the lines remained largely intact until recently, the final closure of the rail access fell in the 1990s when an industrial building was built on the trackbed in Shore Street adjacent to the Viaduct.

For many years one if not two telephone kiosks were located against the railway viaduct beside the Harbourmaster’s Office in Shore Street. They were greatly used in former times by visiting sailors phoning home but modern communication systems and the massive spread of mobile telephones have seen these landmarks also consigned to history.