Lord Uist, at Edinburgh Court of Session, has agreed to the appointment of advocate Kenny McBrearty as amicus curiae – friend of the court – to examine the terms of the Rothesay charters of 1401 and 1584. Mr McBrearty’s task is to see if there is a case for the Court of Session  to turn down the petition lodged by the Crown Estate Commissioners’ in their dispute with moorings owners in Kames Bay.

At issue is the right of the Crown Estates to charge fees to sailors to put down moorings in Bute’s waters. The dispute is a long running one and For Argyll has reported on it in September this year.

The Crown Estate claims the right to charge for the laying of a permanent mooring in Kames Bay – as it levies such charges throughout Scotland. But Brandanes have long claimed that the terms of Rothesay’s royal charters give them the right to free use of the sea bed around the island.

King Robert III established Rothesay as a royal burgh in 1400  – the first time the phrase ‘Royal Burgh’ had been used in official documents.  James VI then declared Rothesay a ‘free port’ in a Charter of Confirmation in 1584.

The critical section of the James VI charter, spurring on the Port Bannatyne Moorings Association in their resistance to the Crown Estate’s charges is:

‘We give and grant to the magistrates and inhabitants of the said Burgh, present and to come, a free port and harbour for ships in the bay and station of the said Burth of Rothesay and the Kyles of Bute, the stations of Cumbray and Fairly and Holy Isle, and all others within the foresaid bounds, with free entrance and exit for ships and boats for carrying burdens with all kinds of goods and merchandise not prohibited by our laws and Acts, with all hte privileges and liberties of a free port, and receptacle for ships, with power for the support of the foresaid port, to receive and raise off goods, merchandise, ships and boats’.

In 2007 Argyll and Bute Council agave up its attempt to take on the Crown Estate although it came under fire for basing its case on the wrong issue – ownership of the sea bed (which historically belongs to the Crown Estates) rather than the right to its free use (which the islanders of Bute – Brandanes – claim the James VI charter conferred upon them).

Harry Ellis, one of the moorings holders has set up a fighting fund to oppose the Crown Estate Commissioners’ attempt to charge for mooring licenses. He says that he has had a letter from his solicitors confirming that the Crown Estate Commissioners’ petition to the Court of Session will come up again on 30th January. By this time, Mr McBrearty, the newly appointed amicus curiae, will have examined the two charters in question and will be in a position to lodge his responses.

This occasion should bring to a conclusion what has been a stirring battle for justice marked by courage, resourcefulness and determined research on the part of the moorings holders concerned.

As well as For Argyll’s previous article linked above, the following are worth a look:

• January 2008 News from the Crown Estates
• Port Bannatyne Moorings Association

The photograph above of Port Banntyne seafront is licensed for use under Creative Commons.