To Inveraray by the Loch Eck Route

on May 1, 2023

It was David Napier, one of the pioneers of steamships on the Clyde, who opened up the route to Inveraray by Loch Eck and Strachur. In 1827, he placed the iron-bottomed Aglaia on Loch Eck and the old Marion from Loch Lomond, renamed Thalia, to sail between Strachur and Inveraray. In 1829, he introduced steam carriages on the connecting roads from his pier at Kilmun to the foot of the Loch and from its head to Strachur. The steam carriages were quickly withdrawn as too heavy for the road surfaces, but the route proved popular with coaches instead of the steam carriages, and the whole road along the side of Loch Eck was improved at this time. At the end of the season in 1835, Napier sold his steamboats on the Clyde and moved his enterprise to London. Among the steamboats sold was the Aglaia, and her subsequent adventures on Loch Fyne as Strachur, and on the Clyde as the James Gallacher...

Irvine Harbour

on Jun 11, 2022

The port of Irvine is a natural harbour on the south bank of the river Irvine, extending inward from near the confluence of the river with the Garnock to where it takes a meander from the town to the north. It was a very important trading center from the late middle-ages and indeed was considered the third port of Scotland at one time. The rights to the river frontage were contested for many years but in 1573 came into the possession of the Corporation of Irvine and the port was run by the town council. Irvine Harbour around 1890 (Washington Wilson) In 1815, with the arrival of the steamboat age, Irvine was a call made by the Greenock, on her weekly sojourn to Ayr. The return journey was made the following day. The Greenock was sold off the river the following year. “Steam Boat Greenock, Anderson & M‘Cowan, Captains, Sails every lawful day, to and from Glasgow to Greenock, and...

Gourock Railway Pier

on Jun 18, 2021

In 1865, the Caledonian Railway Company purchased the harbour and pier at Gourock. The move anticipated the changes taking place as their main rival, the Glasgow and South Western Railway company sought access to the coast at Albert Harbour in Greenock through the proposed Greenock and Ayrshire Railway, that also provided a route to Greenock from Glasgow. The Greenock Railway, taken over by the Caledonian in 1851, had long enjoyed a monopoly of access to the coast and had built up connecting services to the coast towns and resorts with the private steamboat owners. This monopoly was threatened, not only by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, but also by the North British Railway, on the cusp of the opening of the Helensburgh line providing access to the coast on the north bank of the Clyde, and the Wemyss Bay Railway, offering services provided by the Caledonian itself. The...

Glenfinart

on Apr 26, 2019

The steam coaster Glenfinart was built by Messrs Burrell & Son in 1892 at their Hamilton Hill yard on the Glasgow extension of the Forth and Clyde Canal. As befits a puffer, for that is what she was, her dimensions conformed to the necessities of the locks on the canal, 65.6 ft length by 17.4 ft breadth and 6 ft depth, 52.47 tons gross and 31.46 net. She was constructed of steel and had a compound, direct-acting vertical engine supplied by Messrs Walker, Henderson & Co., Ltd., Glasgow, that was rated at 10 h.p., driving her single screw. Glenfinart around 1900 at Blairmore with Caledonia Her first owner was Robert Muir of Ardentinny, one of a family of fishermen who were about to embark on an adventure in the coasting trade. The name of the vessel was an appropriate one as Glenfinart House and the associated estate were adjacent to Ardentinny on the shores of Loch Long....

Pirnmill and the west of Arran

on Apr 29, 2018

The hamlet of Pirnmill on the west coast of Arran derives its name from the mill set up by the Clark family of Paisley for the production of bobbins or pirns. The photograph above shows the pirn mill itself after it became Currie’s grocer and general merchants. With the advent of the steamboat, Pirnmill became a calling point, served by a ferry-boat. It was the Campbeltown and Glasgow Steam Packet Co. that opened up the trade and included the ferry stop in its itinerary, and for many years this was the only regular stop on the west coast of Arran. In the 1860s, the steamboat Herald was placed on a new route to Campbeltown from Fairlie and it called at the ferries of Pirnmill, Machrie and Blackwaterfoot, favouring the Arran shore of the Kilbrannan Sound rather than Carradale and the Kintyre shore. Indeed the calls at Blackwaterfoot and Machrie were also made by the turbine steamers...

Tigh-na-bruaich

on Dec 16, 2017

The village of Tighnabruich lies west of the mouth of Loch Ridden in a sheltered location with spectacular views to the south, down the western arm of the Kyles of Bute. The remote site is passed over in the early guides and accounts of sailing through the Kyles. Lumsden’s Steamboat Companion gives no mention, even in its later editions:— “From Rothesay the channel, for some miles, takes a north-westerly course, leaving the Clyde, and taking the name of the Kyles of Bute, which encircles half the island. Opposite to Rothesay bay is Auchenwilliam, Kirkman Finlay, Esq.; and 2 miles on the left is Port Bannatyne Bay and Village which, as well as Rothesay, is the occasional retreat of sea-bathing visitors; at the head of the bay stands Kames Castle, Hamilton, a romantic situation; and near it, an old tower, in ruins. In sailing through this channel, several agreeable prospects are met...