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 The steam carriages were quickly withdrawn as too heavy for the road surfaces, but the route proved popular with coaches instead of the steam carriages, and the whole road along the side of Loch Eck was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...

Wartime on the Cameron Estate

on Apr 5, 2023

After war was declared on September 3rd, 1939, the local authorities in the Vale of Leven got into action. The invasion of Poland had highlighted the dangers to the civilian population of bombing from the air, and measures were immediately put in place to safeguard lives and property. Notable public buildings such as schools, the labour exchange in Leven Street, the Henry Brock Hospital, and the police station in Hill Street were surrounded by sand-bags. Alexandria Police Station in Hill Street (Ian M‘Caffary, Vale Memories and Banter) Shops had strips of paper glued to their windows to prevent shards of glass flying in the event of a bombing. The blackout was enforced; and kerbs, lamp-posts and telegraph poles had reflecting stripes painted on them to aid walking and driving in the dim lighting that was allowed. However in February 1940, new restricted gas lighting was introduced at...

Marchioness of Lorne of 1891

on Mar 2, 2023

By the summer of 1890, the Caledonian Steam Packet Company had established a strong position in capturing the bulk of the daily traffic to the Clyde coast. Frequent service from Gourock and Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Millport, Dunoon, Cowal and the Holy Loch piers with fast and comfortable steamers brought a positive response from the public. In the lower Firth, the service to Arran from Ardrossan by the new Duchess of Hamilton was a great improvement on the opposition’s Scotia. However, the Duchess was a summer butterfly, laid up for the winter, and the provision of a steamer capable of withstanding the rigours of the winter crossing was high on the priority list for the Company. In October, the order was placed for a steamer that was quite a revolution. The hull was constructed by Messrs Russell & Co., of Port Glasgow. She was of similar dimensions of her quasi-sisters built the...

Fairlie Pier

on Feb 6, 2023

The village of Fairlie, just south of Largs, lies in the shelter of the Cumbraes and was long a summer resort of wealthy Glasgow merchants and lawyers who built villas on the hills behind the row of fishermen’s cottages that fronted the beach. The feudal land-owner was the Earl of Glasgow whose Kelburn Castle is the major estate in the district. Fairlie was a ferry call by the Millport and Ayr steamboats, but traffic was never sufficient to merit the construction of a pier until the Glasgow and South Western Railway planned a branch-line to Largs. Kelburn Castle Apart from fishing, boat building by the Fife family began at Fairlie at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The boatyard produced fishing boats and small trading sloops and smacks, and, for more wealthy clients, yachts and cutters. In 1814, an early steamboat, Industry, came from the yard of John & William Fife, and...

A brush with Samuel Walters

on Jan 4, 2023

I recently had occasion to re-examine some of the cartes-de-visite that I accumulated over the years by the renowned marine artist Samuel Walters. He was very active in the middle of the nineteenth century. Most of his work is focused on the Mersey, and I had not paid much attention to the subject matter, but I decided to do a little more research as I have to hand the biography, “Samuel Walters—Marine Artist,” by A. S. Davidson, published by Jones-Sands, Coventry, in 1992. I will return to the reasons for my renewed interest towards the end of the article, but will begin with an incident that I knew little about. One of the cdvs features a painting of the barque, Lotty Sleight that exploded in the Mersey on January 15, 1864. The explosion created a sensation on Merseyside and a quick reference to Samuel Walter’s biography, reveals that the photograph of the painting was registered...

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...