Rhu or is it Row?

on Mar 24, 2021

The village of Row at the entrance to the Gareloch owes its origins to the adjacent Gareloch narrows, a convenient if treacherous crossing point for people, goods and cattle. The Parish of Row encompasses the east shore of the Gareloch and was formed in 1648 when the M‘Aulays of Ardencaple built a church. The present building dates from 1851, and dominates the village that grew up around it. Early volumes of Hugh MacDonald’s “Days at the Coast” provide an engraving of the village in the late 1850s. The village is surrounded by large houses, many built for summer residences by the wealthy members of Glasgow society. Row Early photographs also feature the church. Editions of MacDonald’s book from around 1868 contain albumen photographs by Thomas Annan. A photograph by Beckett shows almost the same scene. Row village (Annan) Row village (Beckett) The ferry between Row point and Roseneath...

Innen’s Quay—A note on Tigh-na-bruaich

on Jan 16, 2021

The origins of some of the piers and landing places on the Clyde are shrouded in mist, perhaps none more so than Tighnabruaich. The previous article on the pier cited 1843 as the date when the pier was erected. This information came from Frank Arneil Walker’s tome, “The Buildings of Scotland, Argyll and Bute,” published by Penguin in 2000, and generally an impeccable source as it accesses architectural plans that are well-dated. The plans are presented in Ian McCrorie’s book “Tighnabruaich Pier,” published by the Tighnabruaich Pier Association in 2002. Indeed the plans for the quay at Tighnabruaich were likely drawn up in 1843 for the Castle Steamboat Company, but the construction of the pier was a year or so later. In the Glasgow Herald in February 1844, there is an advertisement for feuing of the shore at Over Innens that mentions the ferry at Tigh-na-Bruaich, and a year or so later,...

Roseneath and Kilcreggan

on Dec 24, 2020

The ferry at Roseneath was in existence long before steamboats graced the waters of the Gareloch. William Mauchan in his book “Rosneath Past and Present,” (Alexander Gardner, Paisley, 1893) recalls that the boat was large open wherry that was generally put under sail and took, sheep, cattle, horses and farm produce as well as passengers to Greenock. A similar craft was operated from the more exposed village of Kilcreggan by the M‘Farlane family of ferrymen. The Duke of Argyll used a six-oared barge to cross from Roseneath to Cairndhu between Row (Rhu) and Helensburgh, across the mouth of the Gareloch. The Helensburgh and Gareloch steamboats called at Roseneath Ferry, lying off the Ferry Inn, but it was expansion of feuing that brought about the promise of new piers to encourage the construction of summer residences for the affluent of Glasgow. In the Glasgow Herald of March 16, 1846,...

The Greenock and Helensburgh Steamboat Company

on Nov 26, 2020

The Clyde in 1865 had seen the long-awaited opening of the Wemyss Bay Railway that was expected to provide a convenient terminus for sailings to Rothesay, Largs, Millport, and Arran. The Largs, Millport and Arran routes had been the province of the steamers of Captain Duncan M‘Kellar and his sons, John and Alex, sailing from Glasgow. Anticipating the competition from the Railway, their steamers had been sold; their two flyers, Jupiter and Juno, going to the Confederates to run the blockade. However, the expected strong competition from the railway owned steamers did not immediately materialize, largely through mismanagement, and there were opportunities for an enterprising steamboat owner. On the north bank of the Clyde, the railway had reached Helensburgh in 1858 and efforts had been made to improve the town’s pier. Again, the coming of the railway had resulted in a running-down of...

Dumbarton’s Castle Pier

on Oct 12, 2020

The county town of Dumbarton on the river Clyde owes its origins to the rock that dominates the skyline and its bridge over the river Leven that provided access to the west. In its early history, Dumbarton was a sea-port of some importance but the industry of its larger neighbour, Glasgow, in deepening the Clyde diminished the trade. By virtue of an agreement made at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Dumbarton owned ships were exempt from the dues payable to Glasgow for the use of the waterway, and Glasgow worked over the years to remove this exemption, first limiting it to ships owed by burgesses of Dumbarton in 1825, then in 1858, after the railway had all but driven the Dumbarton steamboats from the river, it was removed altogether after compensation was paid by the Clyde Trustees, though ship-owning burgesses who served before that date were given continued exemption....

Clynder Pier

on Sep 14, 2020

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the villages on the western shore of the Gareloch were poorly served with piers to connect with the frequent steamboat services from Glasgow and Greenock. The sometimes difficult means of boarding was by ferry boat and there were ferries at Rahane, Crossowen and at Roseneath. It was in 1845 that a pier opened at Roseneath, just south of the narrows that mark the boundary of the Gareloch proper. The good folk of the village of Clynder had either to walk to Roseneath or use the ferry at Crossowen, north of the village, where the ferryman was James Campbell, . Archibald Chalmers was born on March 22, 1836, the son of James Chalmers and Sarah M‘Cunn who lived, along with other members of the Chalmers family at Little Rahean. He was baptized on May 5 of the same year. James farmed Little Rahean with his older brother Robert who also had a son,...