Island of Inchgarvie

Like its fellow islands dotted along the Firth of Forth, Inchgarvie has been a place of refuge and defence for hundreds of years. This small, uninhabited island, with its cold warlike appearance, buffeted by wind and rain, is sanctuary only to a population of fulmars and kittiwakes. Castle remains and wartime ruins are all that now bear witness to the past, clinging to this hummock of rock rising above the waters of the Forth.
It is possible that early Christian hermits once eked out a barren existence on Inchgarvie. But in the days when boats were the only means of crossing the Firth of Forth, this island was of
strategic importance, lying on the main route between North and South Queensferry. It may at one time have been used in some capacity by marauding Danes as they attacked Fife and Lothian, and there has certainly been some form of castle or fortification here since the Middle Ages. James IV licensed the island's owner, John Dundas, to build a castle in 1491, while a rather more macabre use was found for Inchgarvie in 1497. It was used as a refuge for victims of the Grandgore (syphilis) in Edinburgh. Passed in September 1497, the Grandgore Act made Inchgarvie a place of compulsory retirement for sufferers of this unpleasant disease. No antibiotics in those days!! The castle itself was
completed in March 1514. Following a visit from artillery experts in July 1515, two serpentine guns and guns from Colstone were placed on the island.It was also equipped with a "blawing horn" and a chapel.
Attacked by the English, used as a prison, and a place of exile in 1580 for those stricken with the plague, Inchgarvie has a checkered history. Both the prison and the quarantine hospital were demolished by Oliver Cromwell. In 1779 the island's fortifications were renewed as a precaution, when American Naval Commander John Paul Jones harassed British ships from a base in the Forth. They were, however, never used in an act of war.
Maybe Inchgarvie's most noted use began in 1878. The foundations for Thomas Bouch's Forth Bridge were laid on Inchgarvie, and the bricks are still there today. These plans were abandoned following the tragic Tay Bridge Disaster. However, the west end of the island was later extended with a pier, and used as the foundation for one of cantilevers holding up the Forth Bridge we see today. This magnificent feat of engineering towers some 300 feet above Inchgarvie, marking the skyline and dwarfing the island lying in its shadow. During its construction, the island was used as an office, and the castle buildings were re-roofed to provide accommodation for many of the workers. Some of the stone from the castle was used to help build the caissons of the Forth Bridge.
Two World Wars saw the island again rise in importance, so close was it to Edinburgh and the Rosyth dockyard. It became a frontline defence against air and submarine attacks, loaded with guns, searchlights, soldiers and sea-watchers, permanently manned throughout the Second World War in particular.
Today the Island of Inchgarvie lies silent, the only sound that of seabirds as they soar over the island and flit amongst its ruins. You cannot land on the island - or so I believe - but you can sail close. Eerie, foreboding, hauntingly mysterious, oh what tales these lasting remains of Inchgarvie could tell if only they could speak. Brooding stories of pain and suffering, of wartime and peace, there is little to celebrate in the history of Inchgarvie. But as with so many like places, it is part of Scotland's past, part of its heritage. Besides which, you take Inchgarvie away - the Bridge falls down!!!