Adela | Clyde River and Firth

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...

At the half-yearly meeting of the Greenock and Wemyss Bay Railway Company on September 30, 1869, the Chairman remarked that the numbers of passengers using the route had dropped in the pervious period, as had passenger receipts but that he was pleased to report the arrangements had been completed with Captain Gillies and Mr Alexander Campbell to run services to Largs, Millport, and Rothesay, taking over from the Wemyss Bay Steamboat Company (Limited) which had withdrawn from the route. The opening of the Wemyss Bay Railway in 1865 running onto a new pier constructed in the shelter of Wemyss Bay promised a new fast route to Rothesay, Largs and Millport. Indeed the M‘Kellar fleet that had dominated the Largs, Millport and Arran trade for almost thirty years had received no new investment since the railway had been announced and quickly went out of business. Largs at Rothesay with Iona...