A short Highland ferry service which was cancelled this summer could be poised to return next year.
The Cromarty ferry route was axed in May because of the closure of its regular overnight berth on safety grounds.
But the service, which links the Black Isle village to Nigg on the opposite side of the Cromarty Firth, could now return after being put out to tender by Highland Council.
The ferry had been run by the Cromarty Ferry Company since 2002 but it withdrew from the contract with the local authority when the berthing issue arose this summer.
The council has now begun the process of looking for the route to return next year by issuing a “future contract opportunity”.
They say they “anticipate” inviting tenders for ferry for passengers and cars.
Councillor David Alston, a Cromarty resident, said it was “very important” that the ferry was revived.
He believed it was likely that there had been a drop in the number of visitors to the village without it.
He said: “It’s very hard to disentangle the loss of the ferry from the poor summer weather and other things.
“It’s absolutely going to have had an impact at both ends though, simply because of the number of cars and people it has carried in the past.
“The important thing is though that the tendering process has begun and it’s very important that the ferry is re-established.”
The Black Isle councillor said that he hoped the tendering process would be “flexible” to allow different business proposals to be put forward for the service, including the time of year the ferry operates and the size of vessel.
Mr Alston added that there would be alternative berths available in the Cromarty Firth for the restored ferry if its previous overnight stop remained unavailable.
The Cromarty Ferry Company considered other berths at the start of the summer but said that they did not have enough time to organise it.
Its vessel, the 56ft Cromarty Queen, had sailed on the route each summer since 2002, carrying four cars and 50 passengers at a time.
In 2014 it carried about 17,000 passengers on the short crossing.