Toscaig Village lies at the end of the Parliamentary Road in 1822. The pier at Toscaig was used by the ferry to Kyle of Lochalsh until 30 years ago. Little or no maintenance has been done and the pier allowed to deteriorate until it was unsafe and of no use to the surrounding communities.
The adjacent concrete buttress was constructed during the Kishorn Oil Platform era and was modified with timber fendering, a steel access ladder and mooring rails. This modification was to allow local fishing and pleasure boats to use the facility.
Highland Council recently decided that, due to the dangerous condition of the structure, to demolish the wooden portion of the structure. To allow the pier to be used in a reduced fashion in the future it was agreed to install fendering, mooring equipment and a ladder.
Due to the remote nature of the site it was access not possible by lorries. All materials had to be loaded on board the Mary M at Oban and shipped to site.
Over time the concrete part of the pier had deteriorated and the first job was to repair the damaged portions of this. The old timbers were then removed from the concrete buttress and prepared for recycling and removed from site. Due to sensitive nature of the ecology it was important that no debris was allowed to fall into the water.
Once the concrete had cured new timber fenders were prepared and fixed to the concrete as the tidal conditions allowed, working downwards on the falling tide. Mooring risers were fitted between these; the access ladder that had been fabricated off site was fixed in place and finally timber copes were fixed along the top of the concrete edge.
GSS (Plant) Ltd, Rhu Marina,
Rhu, Argyll & Bute,
G84 8LH,
SCOTLAND
T: 01436 821277
F: 01436 821288
E: info@gssplant.co.uk