Railway Pier, North Queensferry

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 27/11/1996 Local Authority Fife Planning Authority Fife Parish Inverkeithing NGR NT 12840 80249 Coordinates 312840, 680249 — Possibly Thomas Bouch, 1877; E slip extended circa 1935. Long jetty and pier-head, with associated former goods yard pier to E. Large squared concrete blocks in courses, hammer-dressed sandstone coping; sett and concrete surfacing; steel buttresses along lower slipway; steel mooring bollards to lower and upper jetties; sloping masonry to W with ferry moorings. Entire structure partially covered by concrete render and tarmac. Square raised signal cabin, partly derelict, standing on upper level. GOODS YARD PIER: sloping coursed masonry and random rubble, tarmac surface. Associated timber and steel square disembarkation pier off shore to E, gangway now missing. — This pier served an important role in the history of the Queensferry Passage, with particular relevance to the improvement of the train service to Dunfermline prior to the opening of the Forth Bridge, which itself had been planned from 1873. The North British Railway Company secured rights to the Queensferry Passage in 1867 as an alternative to the Granton-Burntisland crossing, extending a line from Ratho first to Dalmeny then to Port Edgar (South Queensferry) by 1868. In 1872, a railway from Dunfermline to Inverkeithing and North Queensferry was planned by the Dunfermline and Queensferry Railway Company. This line was opened in 1877 and transferred to the North British Railway Company in the same year. Sir Thomas Bouch, engineer to the North British Railway, presumably designed and constructed the Railway Pier. Bouch was responsible for designing the failed Tay Bridge and also designed the first ferry in the world to transport train carriages. Dubbed the 'floating rail

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.