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Inchgarvie

Inchgarvie sits beside one of the cantilevers of the Forth Bridge and is the most westerly of the islands in the Firth of Forth. The island was intended to be used for the foundations of an earlier rail bridge that was to be designed by Thomas Bouch; however, this was abandoned following the collapse of the Tay Bridge, which had also been desined by Bouch, although by that time the foundations for the bridge had been built and can still be seen.

Sitting about halfway between North and South Queensferry, the island was in a strategic position to guard the inner Firth of Forth. A castle was built on the island at some point during the reign of James IV (1488-1513); this was later used as a prison between 1519 and 1671 and the island, like nearby Inchkeith, was also used as an isolation hospital for victims of the plague in the late 15th century.

Inchgarvie was further fortified in the 17th century to help with the defence against Oliver Cromwell; in 1651, Charles II visited the island to inspect these fortifications, but soon after this he was deposed and Cromwell had the fortifications demolished. Then, in the late 18th century, Inchgarvie was fortified again, this time to help defend against a Franco-American fleet commanded by John Paul Jones.

In the 19th century, Inchgarvie was sold to the Forth Bridge Railway Company that was formed in 1873 to build a railway bridge across the Forth. The island was then fortified again during the First World War to defend both the bridge and the naval dockyard at Rosyth; the guns used during that war were removed in 1920 and, according to some sources, the island was not used for defence during the Second World War.

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