Ferry Boats

 across the Firth of Forth at Queensferry, Edinburgh

    The Hawes Inn, Queensferry,  Queensfeerry Passage Notice  -  May 2013 ©          The Forth Rail Bridge and Ferry at South Queensferry before the opening of The Forth Rail Bridge ©

The Queensferry Passage

South Queensferry to North Queensferry

'Queen Margaret

Wooden paddle steamer.  Built Leith 1821

'Forfarshire

   The Forth Rail Bridge and the ferry boat, Forfarshire, on the Queensferry Passage at South Queensferry ©

Built Dundee 1861
On Queensferry Passage for >20 yrs from1893
Re-boilered and given very tall funnel 1904.
Broken up 1922

'Woolwich'

The Queensferry Passage:  The ferry boat, 'Woolwich' at  the Hawes Pier, beside the Forth Bridge  -  Postcard posted 1919 ©

Built Blackwall 1890
On Queensferry Passage from 1908
Broken up 192
3

'Dundee'

   The Forth Rail Bridge and the ferry boat, Dundee, on the Queensferry Passage at South Queensferry ©

Built Renfrew 1875.  Re-boilered 1914
Capacity:  997 passengers + 3 lorries + 2 cars
Operated Queensferry Passage 1920-1948.
Broken up 1952

'Queen Margaret'

    The Forth Bridge and the ferry boat, Queen Margaret, on the Queensferry Passage, moored at Hawes Pier, South Queensferry.  When might this photo have been taken?The Forth Rail Bridge and the ferry boat,Queen Margaret, on the Queensferry Passage at South Queensferry ©

Built Dumbarton 1934
Broken up 1965

Double-ended, side loading, diesel electric paddle driven boats.
Capacity,  28 cars each
Operated 1934-1964.

'Robert the Bruce'

    Valentine's Postcard  - Zoom in to the ferry 'Robert the Bruce' -  1934 ©

    ©

Built Dumbarton 1934
Broken up 1965

'Mary Queen of Scots''

   A ferry  -  probably 'Mary Queen of Scots'  -   at South Queensferry ©

  

Built Dumbarton 1949
Broken up 1965

Appearance: similar to  'Queen Margaret'
Operated 19
50-1964. 

'Sir William Wallace''

   The Ferry, 'Sir William Wallace' on the Queensferry Passage in the late-1950s ©

Built Dumbarton 1956

Operated 1956-1964. 

'Ferries (above) decommissioned at North Queensferry

   Ferries from the Queensferry Crossing, berthed at North Queensferry, following the opening of the Forth Road Bridge in 1964 ©

 

Built 1934, 1949, 1956 Decommissioned 1964

Acknowledgements

An Illustrated History of Edinburgh's Railways ( Smith +  Anderson)  Irwell Press, 1995
Steamers of the Forth (Ian Brodie):  Publ. David & Charles, 1976
Steamers of the Forth, Vol 1 (Ian Brodie):  Stenlake Publishing Ltd., 2004
Ferries in Scotland (Marie Weir):  Publ. John Donald, 1988
Frank Hay, Queensferry, Edinburgh (a Member of Queensferry History Group

Dates of Photographs

This list of ferries may be helpful in dating some of the old photos and postcards of ferries on the Queensferry Passage..

The Queensferry Passage, across the Forth between South Queensferry and North Queensferry, ended when the Forth Road Bridge was opened on 4 September 1964.

More Photos

Above, I have included just one photo of each of the ferries.  Here is another page of early views of the Firth of Forth.  It has  more photos of the some of the ferries and zooms-in on some of these photos.

 

Recollections

The Queensferry Passage

Granton - Burntisland Ferry

 

 

Firth of Forth

More Photos

The Forth Rail Bridge and ferry at South Queensferry ©

Early views + ferries

Granton Breakwater  -  8 September 2002 ©

Granton

The Forth Rail Bridge - Thumbnail images ©

The Forth Bridges

Queensferry Passage

List of ferry boats
and links to more photos

Granton Ferry

List of ferry boats
and links to more photos

Early Descriptions

Queensferry

Firth of Forth

The Coast  -   River Crossings  -  Islands

Forth Road Bridge

 

 

 

__________________