Ballachulish is a slightly confusing place. And not just because it has a name that is difficult to spell correctly, or even consistently incorrectly. It's not unusual to find places that come in two halves. But Ballachulish comes in two halves plus another, larger, settlement two miles along the road to Glencoe.

The name comes from the Gaelic for village of the narrows, and the first settlement to bear the name lay where North Ballachulish is today. Its twin, on the south side of the loch, rapidly followed. Loch Leven narrows dramatically here and North and South Ballachulish grew up around the slipways from which a ferry crossed the loch from a very early date. A vehicle ferry started to cross the narrows in 1912, but the service finally disappeared in 1975 when the bridge opened. With it disappeared the choice facing drivers of the sometimes long queues at busy periods or the nineteen mile detour via Kinlochleven.

Though the ferry has long gone, the slipways that served the ferry remain: by no means opposite one another. The steel truss bridge that opened here in 1975 fits nicely into its environment. Indeed, it comes as something of a surprise to find it is such a relatively recent addition to this part of the Western Highlands.