MP has tunnel vision for the islands

FORGET ferry crossings: Argyll should learn from the Faroes and build undersea tunnels to link up Hebridean islands, the region’s MP has urged.

Argyll and Bute MP Brendan O’Hara praised the Danish archipelago’s ‘remarkable’ road tunnel network connecting the outlying islands with the capital, Torshaven, and said Scotland and his constituency could learn a great deal from the success.

The SNP MP made the comments after a Westminster meeting with Uni Danielson, managing director of tunneling company Nardoyatunniln, overseeing the Faroe’s longest tunnel, two lanes running for 6.3km 150m below the Atlantic between the islands of Borðoy and Eysturoy – an island which also claims a ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’, like the Isles of Seil and Great Bernera, to neighbouring Streymoy.

Mr O’Hara said: ‘Tunnels are a vital part of the Faroese transportation network and has brought them huge economic benefits and, at a cost of £11 million per kilometre, I think this is worth exploring further.’

He intends to visit the Faroes next year, possibly with the Scottish Government’s Minister for Transport and the Islands Humza Yousaf, ‘to see at first-hand how these tunnels are built and to see if such technology could be applied here in Argyll and other parts of Scotland to connect some of our islands and more remote parts of the constituency to the mainland’.

The Faroe Islands is approximately 200 miles off the north-west of Scotland and lies between Norway and Iceland and has been building tunnels since the 1960s. There are around 18 tunnels connecting the various islands ranging from 0.5km to 6km.

Travelling by tunnel would be quicker than by ferry, and less likely to close in adverse weather, but they are more susceptible to earthquakes and are expensive to construct.

Distances and costs between Hebridean islands can vary greatly: 1km tunnels connecting Mull and Iona or Islay and Jura come in cheapest costing £11 million apiece, slightly more than a 4km underground passage between Tayinloan and Gigha for £44 million, or £66 million to burrow 6km between Claonaig and Lochranza on Arran.

But dwarfing these would be digging a 15km tunnel between Oban and Craignure on Mull, costing £165 million, or tunneling 26km between the mainland and Islay at its closest point (under Gigha), and using Islay as a stepping-stone to bore 14km onto Colonsay, costing £440 million for the round trip.

CalMac said it had no view on the matter.