Inch Garvie Prison and Its Forgotten Inmates

In the shadow of Scotland’s sprawling history, wedged between royal power plays and religious reformation, lies a small, rocky outcrop in the Firth of Forth known as Inch Garvie. Barely more than a bump in the tidal waters between North and South Queensferry, Inch Garvie holds a fascinating and often overlooked place in the annals of Scottish history—as a state prison. Overshadowed today by the engineering marvel of the Forth Bridge that looms overhead, the island’s days as a political prison make it one of the most peculiar and forgotten penal sites in pre-modern Scotland.

Though modest in size, Inch Garvie’s role was anything but small.