A historic millstone? Glen Rosa ferry’s 11-year stationary journey finally nears its end

The MV Glen Rosa, seen earlier this year, could actually start carrying passengers in 2027. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

In 2015, the top songs were Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, Cheerleader by Omi and Take Me to Church by Hozier; the internet spent an inordinate amount of time obsessing over whether a dress was blue and black or white and gold; and a buoyant Nicola Sturgeon told the SNP conference that the party’s membership had grown dramatically to more than 114,000.

A day after she gave that speech, contracts were awarded to the Ferguson Marine shipyard on the Clyde to build two ferries for state-owned CalMac. They were to cost £48.5 million each and be ready within three years. Hurray for Scotland and the SNP!

READ MORE: Eight years late, and now a new incredibly convenient reason to delay Glen Rosa ferry

Eleven years later, the Glen Rosa is set to cost about £200 million – like its sister ship, the Glen Sannox – and is not expected to be finished until February next year.

However, it has just started its sea trials, which Kevin Hobbs, chief executive of government ferry quango CMAL, hailed as “an important milestone”. If there’s one every three months, that’s a heck of lot of milestones... but maybe he meant ‘millstone’.