Corrie Ferry

on Dec 21, 2022

A few miles north of Brodick on the Island of Arran is the village of Corrie. Strung out along the rocky coast with no natural bay but there are natural inlets where at one point a jetty and at another, a quay, provide some shelter for fishing boats and trading craft. For many years there was a trade in lime from mines in the vicinity. The village is particularly picturesque and early attracted visitors as the most direct route for ascending Goat Fell, the tallest peak in the Arran mountains. The early steamboats to the Island, belonging to the Castle Company in the 1820s, sailed from Glasgow and Rothesay for Brodick and Lamlash and would have passed along the shoreline close to the village. It seems likely that passengers for Corrie would have been landed there by ferry, either from the ship’s boat or from a wherry setting out from the shore. Like the rest of the Island, the village...

A few days on Bute

on Aug 9, 2022

It is not often that I find a collection of photographs that gives insight into a visit of two or three days to a single location where Clyde Steamers play an important part of the views. In this case, a small collection from a trip to Bute around 1951, mainly featuring Rothesay Pier, where the comings and goings of the daily traffic provide a fascinating picture of the Clyde a year or so before the advent of motor vessels. Saint Columba in Rothesay Bay on her way to Ardrishaig Gingerly approaching Rothesay Pier. This was originally captioned as leaving the pier by as Jim Galt has nicely pointed out it is taken from Albert Pier and he provided the reason for the slow approach Saint Columba at Rothesay Pier At Rhubodach where the bell has summoned the ferry and a motor yacht passes Saint Columba passing up the Kyles Back at Rothesay Pier, Jupiter disgorges her passengers More visitors...

Nationalization

on Feb 9, 2022

For a small boy, one of the treats when going for a sail on the Clyde or a holiday visit on the Firth in the 1950s was to go to the steamer shop or stationery shop when ashore and, after much deliberation, choose a postcard depicting a favourite steamer of the day. Particularly prized were the photographic cards produced by Messrs W. Ralston, Ltd., the premier marine photographers who were renowned for their images of ships on trials. Their series of cards of Clyde Steamers covered most of the important members of the fleet. With the exception of the MacBrayne vessels, the uniform buff, black-topped funnels of the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd., gave the impression that this was standard for a passenger steamer, but careful attention to the photographs gave glimpses of a more colourful age that preceded the utilitarian post-war decade. This article is mostly pictorial in nature. The...

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...

The twins of 1937

on Aug 1, 2019

From 1930 onwards, the L.M.S. railway company had embarked on a program of replacement for the fleet of steamers built before the first world war. The Duchess of Montrose in 1930, Duchess of Hamilton in 1932, Caledonia and Mercury in 1934, Marchioness of Lorne in 1935 and Marchioness of Graham in 1936 had been revolutionary and a tremendous investment at a time when shipbuilding work on the Clyde was scarce and prices were low. Additional tonnage was required, however, for the popular routes to Dunoon and Rothesay and in 1936, an order was placed with the Fairfield Company in Govan for two steamers, designed as ferry-class vessels like Marchioness of Lorne, but with higher speed and greater capacity. The new steamers, to be named Jupiter and Juno, were built on the same slipway at the Govan yard. Although named after two steamers of the former Glasgow and South Western Railway Co.,...

Innellan Pier

on Aug 13, 2018

The origins of Innellan date from the 1840s. Before that time the coastal area, five miles or so south of Dunoon, was sparsely populated. There were a few secluded summer homes for some of the wealthy businessmen from Paisley and Glasgow but the coast was in a state of nature. The name Innellan supposedly refers to the Perch, a rocky island off the coast but its present spelling derives from the time, around 1850, when feus were made available. Greenock Telegraph, December 28, 1849 Greenock Telegraph, August 30, 1850 “The New Watering Place.—Innellan promises to become a favourite locality for summer retirement. It is only a week or two since it was proposed to feu there, and we hear that already almost a dozen feuars are forward, and as there is a certainty of many tasteful villas making their appearance in that quarter in the course of the next two or three months. Innellan is...