Quoted from Apollo

Ah... Got "it"  
Was the H.G. post a tangible thing, or just a bunch of guys in a clump?

Oh yes, it was tangible. It was my experience that the HG tended to take their job seriously, and could be overly conscientious at times, especially wi' Glesga keelies. They could have been on manouvers along with army regulars; there were quite a few of them but their behaviour was as it should have been... polite.

Canada we have a problem!  Two nations divided by a single language?

I think the question Apollo is asking is "Did the Home Guard post have any physical presence i.e any building or other structure?"

Yes Fox, thank you, i know what was meant now... I'm a ding dong!
No Apollo, there was no tangible post of any kind. just a 'clump' of uniformed humanity.

Thanks guys.

I think you're both right of course, as the question wording was a bit too fancy.

It was just that the mention of a 'post' had flashed up a vision of the HG on exercises with sandbags, a hut, and a swinging barrier across the road.

DAFT, I know, but once it had appeared in my mind, I couldn't shake it.

I took a trip to Ardlui this afternoon.  I didn't find what I hoped to but I did find two large piers apparently from an old bridge or for an old bridge.  Built of stone there is one each side of the water.  There are several inexplicable things about this.

1)  19th and early 20th century maps show no signs of a bridge and indicate the existence of a ferry crossing at this point.

2)  The water is quite wide so how  18th century engineers proposed to span this is not clear.  It is possible that there was another pier in the centre ( or more than one ) which was removed when the river was canalised up to Inverarnan.  It must have been a busy route to warrant such a structure.. Did it ever get built?

The area seems to be known as MacGregor's Crossing now and is behind a presently closed hotel.  If I had realised it was closed I could have saved myself a mile or so walk across very wet countryside including being up to my knees in rather cold water.  Part of the fun I suppose.

I don't think there can be any doubt that these were the supports for the pier that served the ferry. This is the 1922 map, the earlier versions show it too, but no so clear:



Unfortunately, the passage of time has had less effect on the stone parts, and whatever wooden parts there were have been lost, so unless someone can come up with an old pic, it's all down too imagination.

I tried a quick search, but the existence of the modern day ferry and the desire to net tourists and part them from their cash means there little chance of finding references to the old ferry online, with any ease at least.

However...

With the benefit of having seen things first hand, maybe some of the pics from the local heritage site may be relevant, and not only show the more common item to the south (which I almost missed on the map, and is clearly marked Jetty)?

http://www.arrocharheritage.com/ArrocharHeritageTrail_Ardlui_Photos.htm

Great site, I'll have a more indepth look at it later wen I have more time.

The 1905 pic seems to show the west pillar although the pic is very blurred.

I cannot see these pillars as bases for piers as they were about 10 feet above the waterlevel yesterday and as a result of the heavy over night rain the water level was several feet above normal level.  At one point the lochside path was more than a foot under water!  Any boats using these as  piers would have to be quite high. The loch is more than 50metres wide at this point so a difficult span in 17th/18th century terms and too short for a big ferry to cross.  Another enigma?

I think you're spot on about the height of these pillars, AND provided the reason for their being, in terms of height.

Given that we're probably in the region of Max Water Level about now, and that data for this area suggest a summer/winter variation of 8 m, then I guess it would make sense to build the stone pier at the max height, and then hang some sort of wooden staging off it to allow the ferry passengers to board without being athletes, and presumably shift livestock too, this being the days before floating docks and swinging linkspans. It may have been nothing more than a ladder to let them reach the boat at whatever height it happened to be.

Presumably it also helped them keep their feet dry as the rising waters ate into the shore.

The ferry could have been little more than a glorified rowing boat. There were quite a few surviving when Tom Weir made his programmes, summoning the boatman with a shout or a whistle, or raising a flag to let him know there was a fare waiting.

Just a bit reasoned guesswork of course, like all these oddities, it would be nice if a painting or pic ever turned up.

Given they are now 3 metres above the water level, at the lowest they would be 11 metres .  That would neeed some ladder particularly as the ground under the present water level shelves.