Port Bannatyne

on Nov 17, 2022

Kames Bay in Bute, and its associated Castle, appear early in the written history of Bute, coming into the ownership of the Bannatyne family before the fifteenth century. In the late eighteenth century, James Bannatyne is recorded to have been laird with a benevolent attitude to his tenants, but doing little to improve the estate beyond the planting of trees. He died in 1786, unmarried, and the estate passed to his nephew, William MacLeod, an advocate in Edinburgh, who became Lord Advocate in 1799. William took a more active interest in the estate and improved the roads through statute labour, and also, in 1801, built a stone quay. However, William, or Lord Bannatyne as he was called, was living beyond his means, and in 1810 the estate was sold to James Hamilton, another Edinburgh advocate, who began selling off many of the assets. James Hamilton died in 1849 and in 1854, his son, Rev....

Glasgow & Southwestern Railway Steamers

on May 15, 2016

The opening of the Gourock and Ardrossan routes by the Caledonian Railway and the associated steamer services had immediate impacts of the business of the Glasgow & Southwestern Railway and Captain Alexander Williamson who ran his steamboats in association with the railway at Greenock and Captain William Buchanan who provided the service from Ardrossan to Arran. New steamers at Craigendoran had also secured for the North British Railway, the bulk of the Arrochar traffic in connection with their Loch Lomond tours. Faced with these inroads in multiple fronts, the Glasgow & Southwestern Railway made application to Parliament to run its own steamboat service. The Bill was passed in August 1891 but it placed some restrictions on the Glasgow & Southwestern steamers, preventing them sailing to the Lochfyne and Kintyre ports, and the west coast of Arran. They also could not extend...

The Turkish Fleet

on Oct 23, 2015

In earlier articles the history of Captain Alexander Williamson’s career has been detailed. He and Captain William Buchanan owned the Eagle in the 1850s but the partnership dissolved around 1861 and Captain Williamson struck out on his own in 1862 with the Sultan,a fast river steamer built the previous year. (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/clyde-steamer-ps-sultan-86484) Sultan (Williamson) The Sultan was put on the Rothesay and Kyles of Bute station, sailing from Glasgow with a connection at Greenock with the Glasgow trains.  In the winter she sailed from Kamesburgh or Port Bannatyne as it is better known nowadays but during the season she sailed to Tignabruaich and Ormidale. Her schedule meant an early morning sailing from the Kyles of Bute, connecting with a train at Greenock before sailing to Glasgow.  In the afternoon, the journey was repeated in the...