An analytical boundary layer solution is developed for barotropic, steady, frictional, wind-driven flow over a meridionally aligned top-hat ridge in a circumpolar basin on a local β-plane. Classical Sverdrup dynamics cannot hold in a basin with no meridional barriers. With a top-hat ridge, frictional boundary layers exist adjacent to the depth discontinuities which can support along- and cross-ridge transport. The boundary layers thus provide a mechanism for transporting fluid across latitudes of zero wind stress curl. The relevance of this simple model to the dynamics of the Southern Ocean is discussed.