Qualla: Inchgarvie https://qualla.com/inchgarvie en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:17 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Inchgarvie https://qualla.com/inchgarvie Inchgarvie: Introduction https://qualla.com/inchgarvie/ Photo credit Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0. Look at the Forth Bridge from the air and you will see something strange between its three red cantilevers: a knuckle of black rock that the engineers built their middle pier on top of. That knuckle is Inchgarvie, and it is much older than the bridge sitting on its shoulders. James IV ordered a tower built here in 1513. By 1580 the Privy Council was banishing plague victims to it. In 1779 cannons were dragged onto it to repel John Paul Jones. The Victorians used it to hold up the world's first major steel cantilever bridge. Every century has found a use for this little rough island, and the rock has obliged.

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Image: Kim Traynor | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/gcvw-inchgarvie-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Inchgarvie: The Rough Island https://qualla.com/inchgarvie/ Photo credit kim traynor, CC BY-SA 2.0. Inchgarvie sits between North and South Queensferry, exactly where boats had to thread the Firth of Forth before bridges existed. That accident of geography made it strategic, and the Gaelic name reflects what travellers thought when they saw it: innis garbh, the rough island, or...

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Image: kim traynor | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/gcvw-inchgarvie-the-rough-island.mp3 0:06 2 full Inchgarvie: Castle, Prison, Pesthouse https://qualla.com/inchgarvie/ Photo credit ArchaicW, CC BY-SA 4.0. King James IV licensed John Dundas to build a fort here on 20 March 1491. Dundas never did. By 1513 James IV had lost patience and ordered the construction himself. From late 1514 the master mason John of Cumbernauld directed eight masons and ten labourers on the rock, supplied w...

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Image: ArchaicW | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/gcvw-inchgarvie-castle-prison-pesthouse.mp3 0:06 3 full Inchgarvie: Holding Up the Bridge https://qualla.com/inchgarvie/ Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1878, work began on Thomas Bouch's proposed Forth Bridge. The foundations were laid on Inchgarvie. Then the Tay Bridge collapsed on a stormy December night in 1879, killing every soul on the crossing train, and Bouch's reputation collapsed with it. The Forth Bridge plans were ...

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Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/gcvw-inchgarvie-holding-up-the-bridge.mp3 0:06 4 full Inchgarvie: Last Stand https://qualla.com/inchgarvie/ Photo credit Magnus Hagdorn, CC BY-SA 2.0. Inchgarvie had one more military life. In 1901 two 12-pounder guns went up, intended to cover the controlled minefield laid across the Firth and, later, to fend off torpedo boats trying to reach the naval anchorage at Rosyth Dockyard. The armament was removed in 1906, reinstated ...

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Image: Magnus Hagdorn | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/w/inchgarvie-wp/gcvw-inchgarvie-last-stand.mp3 0:06 5 full