Forth has long been a subject that has made a big splash with Evening News' readers

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 10:19

YOU can cross it by road, you can cross it by rail, once upon a time you could cross it by ferry and in the future it looks like you'll be able to cross the Forth by hovercraft.

This week, as reported in the Evening News, Transport giant Stagecoach has set up a 14 million joint venture with hovercraft makers the Bland Group for a proposed service to run between Portobello and Kirkcaldy in Fife.

Stagecoach says it wants to run two hovercraft on the route, with crossings every 25 minutes at peak times. The journey will take less than 20 minutes and will be linked to buses on both sides of the Firth of Forth. And with plans for a new Forth bridge being pushed ahead, despite protests, it looks like soon there will be more options for crossing the firth than ever.

Of course, if all else fails there's always the option of donning a pair of trunks or swimming cossie and plunging into the waters. While that doesn't sound the most attractive proposition in a rain-lashed November, it certainly wouldn't have daunted legendary Portobello swimmer Ned Barnie.

The city science teacher, who swam the Channel three times in the early 1950s, took a dip in the Forth every morning, regardless of the weather, and swam across it on numerous occasions.

A former Royal Scot who won a Military Medal during the First World War, he was 62 when this picture was taken in 1959 of him staggering up the slipway at Burntisland, having spent six and a half hours in the water.

Having set off from Granton and sustained only by a mug of rum on the crossing, he'd had to bypass a curious seal and several jellyfish on his journey. "That is my last long-distance swim," he declared.

The Evening News said of his epic effort: "The hard fact is that Scotland needs more sportsmen like Barnie. He has the will-power to carry on beyond the apparent limit of his endurance."

Barnie died in 1983 but over the years he inspired many swimmers, including John Smith of Bathgate, who at the age of 19 became the youngest person ever to swim the Forth in 1955 when he crossed with Barnie at his side.

John Smith was only the fourth person to have swum from Granton to Burntisland.