Tarbert Harbour (my 90th harbour!) has an incredibly safe feeling to it, reinforced when we met the HM Donald McAllister (my 77th HM) and his super friendly team. The place has a very strong community feel to it; no locks or codes on the marina entrance and even the newly built shower block is free for any visitor to the town.
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There are many “Tarberts” in Scotland, for it is the Viking word for “narrow piece of land where a longship can be dragged over”, and indeed the distance from Loch Fyne to the Atlantic Ocean is barely a mile across Kintyre.
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The harbour was established in 1708, but it was not until 1850 that boom time came to Tarbert and remained for 100 years. The ubiquitous Loch Fyne Herring was responsible for this boom, with fishermen becoming so efficient at catching (in controversial ring nets) and processing the fish, thus enabling a fresh herring to be on a plate in London within 24 hours.
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It was said you could walk across Tarbert Harbour simply by stepping on tightly moored fishing gaffs. The old photo shows the herring being dried before being sealed into salted barrels.
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By 1950 the boom was over, the herring shoals “fished out” and even the stocks of other white fish on the west coast were low by the 1980s. Now the fleet concentrates on shell fish and although most of them get exported to Spain, we were still able to buy fresh langoustines (known locally as prawns) and scallops at the end of the pier.
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In the last 5 years, on Donald’s watch, the harbour has increased the size of the marina considerably and he welcomes the many local RYA (Royal Yachting Association) instructors to use the harbour as a teaching base, and keeps 50 berths for visitors. Consequently the harbour is buzzing. Apart from falling into the harbour, Donald (ex RN) struggled to think of anything unexpected but I want to tell him what a great team of staff he has! It is not often you see young harbour staff on their hands and knees weeding and cleaning behind harbour wall benches! Thank you to Pauline and all for looking after GD for 2 weeks.
#tarbertharbour