Loch Kishorn is a sea loch in the north-west Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Topography

Loch Kishorn is a northern branch of Loch Carron

Loch Carron

Loch Carron is a sea loch on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands. It is the point at which the River Carron enters the North Atlantic Ocean....

 about 1.5 km wide and 4 km long, and with a maximum depth of about 60 m. It is fed by the River Kishorn which flows from the north and enters through an estuary about 2½ km long and almost 1 km wide. To the north and west of the loch is the Applecross

Applecross

The Applecross peninsula is a peninsula in Wester Ross, Highland, on the west coast of Scotland. The name Applecross is at least 1300 years old and is not used locally to refer to the 19th century village with the pub and post office, lying on the small Applecross Bay, facing the Inner Sound, on...

 peninsula; to the east is a headland that separates it from upper Loch Carron. The mouth of the loch is marked by the Garra Islands, the largest of which is Kishorn Island.

There are three small settlements strung along the eastern end of the loch. It is common to refer to the three collectively as Kishorn.

Sanachan lies a little inland at the head of the loch. It contains a small shop/post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 and a Scottish Episcopal

Scottish Episcopal Church

The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....

 chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

. The A896 road passes through Sanachan, and a minor road leads off to the other settlements. Ardarroch

Ardarroch

Ardarroch is a small hamlet, located in what is commonly known as the Kishorn area, on the north east shore of Loch Kishorn, within the Strathcarron, Ross-shire, Scotland, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland....

lies on the lochside, next to small shingly beach

Shingle beach

A shingle beach is a beach which is armoured with pebbles or small- to medium-sized cobbles. Typically, the stone composition may grade from characteristic sizes ranging from two to 200 mm diameter....

. The final settlement, Achintraid

Achintraid

Achintraid is a small remote crofting township, that is situated at the eastern end of the sea loch Loch Kishorn, in Strathcarron, Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland....

, lies further down the loch. It consists of a line of whitewashed cottages, originally built to house crofters evicted in the Highland Clearances

Highland Clearances

The Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and the North American colonies...

. Achintraid is noted for spectacular views of the Applecross peninsula, with the Corbetts of Sgurr a' Chaorachain and Beinn Bhàn

Beinn Bhàn (Applecross)

Beinn Bhàn is a mountain in the highlands of Scotland, lying on the Applecross peninsula, on the north side of Loch Kishorn.The most striking features of Beinn Bhàn are the rocky corries on the eastern side, which are seen well from the A896 road...

 and the pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 of the Bealach na Ba

Bealach na Ba

Bealach na Bà is a historic pass through the mountains of the Applecross peninsula, in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands—and the name of a famous twisting, single-track mountain road through the pass and mountains....

 being particularly prominent.

East of Kishorn are two small Marilyns

Marilyn (hill)

A Marilyn is a mountain or hill in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland or Isle of Man with a relative height of at least 150 metres , regardless of absolute height or other merit...

: An Sgurr

An Sgurr (Lochcarron)

An Sgurr is a hill in Scotland, occupying the broad peninsula between Loch Carron and Loch Kishorn. It has the appearance of a rough knoll, with small crags ringing the summit, particularly on the western side.The hill may be climbed from a number of locations...

 and Bad a' Chreamha

Bad a' Chreamha

Bad a' Chreamha is a small hill in Scotland, occupying the broad peninsula between Loch Carron and Loch Kishorn. It consists of a long low ridge: the northwestern side is marked by a series of broken crags, whilst to the south the hill slopes down to the shores of Loch Carron.Bad a' Chreamha may be...

.

Kishorn Yard

The Kishorn Yard was a fabrication yard for oil platform

Oil platform

An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...

s at Loch Kishorn. The yard was owned by Howard Doris and was operating from 1975 to 1987. In 1975 work began on the construction yard and dock for the production of oil platforms on the north side of the loch. This lay at the end of a two mile stretch of road built to provide access in just 12 days, and by 1977 over 3,000 people were working here, housed in temporary accommodation on site and in two retired liners moored in the loch: the Rangatira and the Odysseus.
The largest project involved the excavation of a huge dry dock, in which was constructed the 600,000 tonne Ninian Central Platform in 1978. Material was supplied by sea and when complete the platform needed seven tugs to tow it to its operating position in the North Sea. The Ninian Central Platform still holds the record as the largest movable object ever created by man.
Loch Kishorn is very deep, technically being a fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

, and the yard was therefore well suited to build the concrete Ninian Central Platform

Ninian Central Platform

The Ninian Central Platform is an oil platform in the North Sea. When constructed in Loch Kishorn, Scotland in 1978 the 600,000 tonne platform was the world's largest man-made movable object before being towed to its current position and fixed to the sea floor.It is a circular concrete gravity...

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Mindful of the controversy surrounding an earlier proposal to develop a yard at Drumbuie

Drumbuie

Drumbuie is a settlement situated less than 1 mile southwest of Duirinish in Lochalsh, Scottish Highlands and is in the council area of Highland.The fishing village of Erbusaig is located less than one mile to the southwest....

, a condition of the planning permission was that the site had to be treated as an island: a self contained village for 2,000 workers was created, and all deliveries would arrive by sea, rather than by road. A depot for transferring deliveries from rail to sea was built at Stromeferry

Stromeferry

Stromeferry is a village, located on the south shore of the west coast sea loch, Loch Carron, in western Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland.It is served by Stromeferry railway station and is close to the A890 road...

, on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line

Kyle of Lochalsh Line

The Kyle of Lochalsh Line is a primarily single track railway line in the Scottish Highlands, running from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh. The population along the route is sparse in nature, but the scenery is beautiful and can be quite dramatic, the Kyle line having been likened to a symphony in...

. These conditions, though slightly relaxed by the end of the yard's life, had the intended effect of not altering the surrounding area much, though some might have liked it if money had instead been spent on improving the poor, usually single track, roads in the area.

By 1980 the construction yard was diversifying in an effort to escape a downturn in oil exploration and production, but its days were numbered. Two thousand people were still employed in 1984, but bankruptcy in 1986 was followed by closure in 1987 and clearance of most of the buildings on the site.

In 1992 the dry dock was put to use in the construction of the 2,300T bridge footings for the Skye Bridge

Skye Bridge

The Skye Bridge is a road bridge over Loch Alsh, connecting mainland Highland with the Isle of Skye, Scotland. It forms part of the A87. The bridge is located at around , with one pillar standing on the island of Eilean Bàn....

, connecting Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village on the northwest coast of Scotland, 63 miles west of Inverness. It is located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye...

 with the Isle of Skye.

The 120m quay is presently used by Ferguson Transport as a port for fish farming supplies, forestry products, round wood, road salt and fertilizer.

One lasting impact is the Howard Doris Trust. Amongst other things, it has provided a lot of funding for the Howard Doris Centre in nearby Lochcarron

Lochcarron

Lochcarron is a village, community and civil parish in the Wester Ross area of Highland, Scotland. It has a population of 923.-Local Information:...

, which provides care for the elderly.

The Kishorn Commandos

Gordon Menzies of the folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 band Gaberlunzie wrote a well known song called "The Kishorn Commandos", the chorus to which is:

We're the Kishorn Commandos way up in Wester Ross

We've never had a gaffer, we've never had a boss

But we'll build the biggest oil-rig you've ever come across

Remember we're the Kishorn Commandos

HMP Kishorn

The now defunct Scottish independence group had put forward plans for a temporary prison to be placed on otherwise empty oil platforms as a solution to prison overcrowding.