The river Leven flows seven miles from its source in Loch Lomond to the Clyde at Dumbarton. It was used by Viking raiders who hauled their longships from Loch Long at Tarbet and, after marauding around the shore of Loch Lomond, sailed to the Clyde by the river Leven. The beauties of Loch Lomond brought some of the earliest tourists to the area in the eighteenth century and the Loch became a sought-after destination, despite the mean accommodation available in the local inns and crofts. Towards the end of the century, certain of the landowners who controlled the shores of the Loch began to build for themselves, substantial mansions. Accommodation for the public also improved, particularly after the publication of Walter Scott’s novel “Rob Roy” in 1817, and the introduction of the steamboat Marion to the Loch the following year. For example, the hotel at Inversnaid opened in1820 and was an improvement on the older coaching or ferry inns at Balloch, Luss, Tarbet, and Inverarnan, leading to a general expansion of facilities. In the eighteenth century also, the fast-flowing and exceptionally pure waters of the Leven attracted the interests of the bleaching and dyeing trade. Fields or “crofts” were laid out on the banks at Dalquhurn and Cordale and Croftingea, and as the industry developed with chemical bleaching and turkey red dyeing and printing, factories transformed the Vale of Leven, attracting an influx of workers from the highlands and later from Ireland.

Coal from the mines of Lanarkshire was imported to the area for the industry in the Vale of Leven and the houses an hotels around Loch Lomond, and before the coming of the railway in the 1850s, almost all of this was brought up the river Leven. Coal was also required for the steamboats on Loch Lomond, and a “coal ree” was established at the end of the Leven towpath at Balloch Ferry. The shallowness of the river at most months of the year precluded the use of steamboats on the Leven, although until a slip was built in the late 1850s on the Loch at Luss, the steamboats had to come down the Leven to the Clyde for their annual surveys and repairs.

The course of the Leven

The river is tidal up to Dalquhurn where the first of the bleachfields was located, and the sailing barges, locally called gabbarts or scows could sail to this point with the tide. However, further up river, against the strong current, horse traction from the towpath on the west bank was required. After the loops around Dalquhurn and Cordale Point, the river was relatively straight although there were notable shallows that had to be avoided at Dillichip, just south of Bonhill, and at Bonhill itself where there was a ford. The towpath ended at Balloch Ferry where the current slackened and from where sail could again be used, polling up the remaining short stretch of the river if necessary. The journey down river took advantage of the strong current but great care was required to avoid the various sand bars that made the navigation hazardous.

A Leven scow north of Dumbarton

There was a plan, in 1824, to improve the navigation by canalization to straighten out the bends in the river. These were never carried through but the survey work was used when the railway was introduced.

Baird’s map of the survey for canalization 

Barges returning to the Clyde carried a variety of cargoes; slates from the quarries near Luss, coppiced wood for the thread bobbin manufacturers of Paisley, wood, sand and other building materials from some of the estates and islands on Loch Lomond. The bleaching and dyeing companies had their own barges, carrying the finished cloth to customers in Glasgow. Particularly in the 1830s when new methods for mechanically printing cloth by rolling cylinders began to supplant the older block methods, the volume of finished textiles was substantial. The proprietors of the Vale of Leven Printfields sent a request to the Dumbarton Steamboat Company to have their boat towed to Glasgow by the new steamboat, Dumbarton. The record in the Dumbarton Company’s sederunt book records “the meeting decline towing the boat,” but they did offer to carry the Vale of Leven goods on board the Dumbarton, “at a moderate rate.”

A Leven barge passing Bonhill around 1840

A barge on its way to the Clyde

The Leven was navigable for barge traffic on an average for about four months in the year. There is little documentation of the barge traffic and the coal merchants in the early part of the nineteenth century. James Barr in his history, “Balloch and Around,” states that in Balloch there “also lived John Lindsay, one of two brothers who built, owned, and navigated the only two gabbarts that traded between the loch and ports on the Clyde, the chief commodity being wood. William Lindsay, was a coal merchant in Bonhill. However, the bulk of the trade moved only rarely into the loch.

The Bunten family, James and John, were involved in the Leven coal trade. They ran the wooden smack John built by William Denny & Son, Dumbarton in 1830. She carried 33 tons with dimensions 65 feet long, 13 feet in breadth and 4¾ feet in depth. In 1838, the wooden lighter Ann was built for them by Archibald P MacFarlane Jnr. & Co., Dumbarton, of similar dimensions. John was a coal merchant in Renton 1838. The Jean, a wooden schooner built by William Denny & Son, Dumbarton for Archibald Brownlie, a Glasgow timber merchant was purchased by John Russel of Renton in 1846, and capable of carrying 49 tons. In 1867, John Russel also acquired the wooden smack Mary Sutherland, that had been built in 1857 by Messrs Archibald M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, for Daniel Sutherland of Renfrew. She was capable of carrying 33 tons and was sold on in 1873.

The wooden smack, Vale of Leven, was built by Messrs Archibald M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, in 1847 for John Weir, a coal merchant in Renton. Her dimensions were 61½ feet by 14½ feet by 4¾ feet and she was capable of carrying 36 tons. Previously, he was owner of the Oracle, built by Archibald P MacFarlane Jnr. & Co., Dumbarton, and carrying 30 tons. The wooden gabbart, Caledonia, was built by Messrs Archibald M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, in 1848 for William Patterson of Renton and others. She was 60 feet by 15¾  feet by 5¾ feet and capable of carrying 47 tons. The William, a wooden smack owned by John Orr Ewing and Hugh Weir of the coal merchant family in Renton was built by Messrs Denny & Rankin, Dumbarton in 1840 and most likely was used in supplying coal to the works of John Orr Ewing of Alexandria. She was 60¾ feet in length by 12¾ feet in breadth and 4¾ feet in depth and capable of carrying 50 tons. She was broken up in 1867. In general, the gabbarts were barges with sails on a single mast, and smacks had finer lines and a single mast, while a schooner rigged vessel in the Leven or Loch trade boasted two. In dimensions they were all capable of passing through the Forth and Clyde Canal to the coalfields.

Jessie, built in 1848 by Archibald M‘Millan & Son, Dumbarton, for  Messrs Thomas Brownlee, Glasgow. She was a wooden gabbart, 48 feet long by 14 feet in the beam and 4¾ feet in depth. In the 1860s she was purchased by James Goldie, Dumbarton and placed on Loch Lomond. She later became the property of Mrs Jane Stonebridge of Dumbarton and was broken up in 1886. The postcards issued by G.W. Wilson, Aberdeen. She is also featured in the first photograph in this article.

Some more information can be gleaned comes from testimony offered in lawsuits associated with the river over the years. The river was a publicly navigable waterway. However, the Trustees of Sir James Colquhoun who had acquired the rights to the salmon fishings attempted to establish private ownership of the navigation in 1875, exploring their power shortly after Sir James had been tragically drowned in the Loch in 1873. They failed in their attempt and withdrew the claim.

Alexander Neilson owned gabbarts on the Leven for about 20 years between 1840 and 1860. He took them up and down the Leven very often, and was well acquainted with the navigation of the river. On the 26th of January, 1877, in connection with a lawsuit brought by the Trustees of Sir James Colquhoun after the Dillichip bridge was erected, he went to Balloch, and came down the river in a lighter. Although he did not take any active part in the navigation of her, but from what he saw done he had every confidence that the channel was as clear as ever.

The railway linking Bowling, on the Clyde, with Balloch opened in 1850, but did not initially affect the transportation of coal and other bulk commodities. More important was the opening of the Forth and Clyde Junction line to Stirling and the Fife coalfields in 1856, and finally the opening of a through connection with Glasgow and Lanarkshire in 1858.

Work-boats on the Loch:—

A Loch Lomond gabbart (G.W. Wilson)

A schooner rigged scow at Balloch

Schooner rigged scow Elizabeth loading coppiced wood at Luss

Loading slates at Camstradden south of Luss

Loading slates at Camstradden

Work-boat at Aldochlay from Inchtavanach

Work-boat at Aldochlay

Scow at Tarbet

Schooner-rigged scow at Tarbet

Though many of the locally owned Leven lighters were sold to the coal-mining companies at that time, the trade on the Leven persisted. There was, however, more concentration in transporting goods from various locations on Loch Lomond to the railway at Balloch. Again, slates from Luss and wood in various forms were the main cargoes. Agricultural materials such as lime made its way up the Leven as well as coal as it was frequently cheaper to transport by water rather than trans-ship the cargo from the railway at Balloch. A crane was placed on Balloch Pier to facilitate cargo handling.

Robert Munro was born in 1842 He spent eleven years with Donald Cameron, the oldest boatman on Loch Lomond, who had charge of a gabbart called the Waterwitch. He had brought wood in a boat from the loch that was landed at Balloch Bridge where the towpath ended south of the White Dyke. The wood was piled up there, and was then carted away to the works. There were hundreds of tons lying on the shore there. He had also brought gravel down from the loch and had put it on the same ground. They put down on the river bank wherever it was most convenient for the person who got it. He had put cargo on the towing path above the bridge, but not below the bridge. The path was not broad enough below the bridge. They brought only coals up the river. They would sometimes put a couple of truckloads of coal on board if they happened to be down at Glasgow where they paid 4d. per cwt. for it. They sold it at 1s. 4d. or 1s. 6d. at Luss. They had to pay 2s. 6d. for the use of a horse. John M‘Kechnie of Main Street, Bonhill, was born in 1860. He had been employed by a contractor in pulling boats containing gravel and wood, &c., brought from the Loch Lomond islands. He had been at towing for over forty years. The gravel and other material was taken to Balloch Station. The wood from the gabbarts or scows was brought to the landing ground at Balloch Bridge, where it was discharged and left to be carted away later. He knew about the towing path. He had seen as many as three horses pulling a gabbart.

Perhaps the best known of the latter day gabbart-men was Bill Russell who started his life working on the scows on the Leven and eventually had his own boat, Rob Roy, on Loch Lomond taking coal from Balloch to the houses and hotels around the Loch. Bill’s older brother John Russell (Russel) (born in 1819) owned several boats in the Leven and Forth and Clyde Canal trade. He also had an interest in one of the river steamers on the Clyde. The scows were sold to coal-mine owners in the 1850s just before the railways took over in the Vale of Leven but he kept his interest in the river steamer and his coal-merchant business in Back Street Renton. Bill’s mother was Mary Macgregor who was born in Renton. Her father was a boatman from Kirkintilloch who was a great-grandson of Rob Roy. Bill was a splendid swimmer and had rescued more than a score of people from drowning in the Loch. He was also a keen duck hunter. After he lost his own boat to fire, he became indigent and lived in a houseboat at Balloch. He died in Dumbarton poorhouse on November25, 1906.

“The death took place yesterday forenoon in Dumbarton Hospital of a well-known Loch Lomondside figure in the person of “Bill Russell.” Deceased was born in Renton fully 74 years ago, and was well known to the visitors to Loch Lomond. Parties so favoured never forgot the tales of Rob Roy recounted by the subject of our sketch, who was proud of his descent on his mother’s side from the famous outlaw. Bill early commenced his work as a “scow” man on the River Leven, but in later years he was engaged supplying coals to the various ports on the loch.  These he carried in bulk on board his little craft, Rob Roy. This vessel he lost by fire, and since that misfortune the veteran led a nomadic life, with his headquarters in a small houseboat at Balloch.  In his day he rescued over a score of people from drowning.”—Glasgow Evening News, November 26, 1906

Bill Russell

Bill Russell

At the time of Bill Russell’s death, local photographers issued postcards as remembrances. Two are shown here but there is another showing him with a gun raised in duck hunting.

In the 1860s, the gabbarts began to be replaced on the Clyde by puffers, wooden or iron vessels powered by steam and driven by a screw propeller. Such propulsion was not preferred for navigating the Leven but was of value for sailing on Loch Lomond. With coal available by the railway at Balloch, steam lighters were drawn up the Leven for use on the fresh-water Loch. It is also likely that some of the older gabbarts were converted to steam. As with the gabbarts, information on steam-lighters is sparse. Unfortunately, the newspaper reports feature tragic accidents.

“Sad disaster on Loch Lomond.—This Wednesday about two o’clock p.m., while a screw lighter belonging to Mr M. C. Templeton, the lessee of the Luss Slate Quarries, was proceeding from Luss to Balloch, Loch Lomond, laden with a cargo of slates and wood, when a short distance from the mouth of the river Fruin, a strong north-westerly gale blowing at the time, she was struck by two heavy waves, and in a few minutes went down stern foremost in the deep water. On board the vessel at the time were eight men, one of whom, named Walter M‘Farlane, got into a small boat, and by the most heroic and praiseworthy exertions succeeded in rescuing four of the occupants of the lighter, named respectively John Geddes, James Parkerson, Robert Shaw, and John Cameron; but the remaining three unfortunately perished. Their manes are Robert Simpson, Angus Cameron, and Alexander Mains. Simpson and Cameron were in the employment of Mr James Jones, wood merchant, Larbert, who has now a number of men at Rossdhu engaged in cutting down wood. Mains, who at the time acted as engineer on the vessel, belongs to Alexandria. The three drowned were all young men and unmarried. Of those saved by M‘Farlane, Geddes and Parkerson were rescued in a very exhausted state. The small boat and its occupants were driven across the loch by the wind, and effected a landing on Boturich shore, a distance about three miles from the scene of the accident.”—Elgin Courant, March 16, 1877

The name of the steam lighter has not been traced.

“The bodies of Robert Simpson and Angus Cameron, two of the men drowned by the upsetting of a steam lighter in Loch Lomond on Wednesday, were recovered on Saturday. Simpson, it seems, belonged to Forfar, and Cameron to Morvern.”—Scotsman March 19 1877

“Loch Lomond.—On Monday morning, on Loch Lomond, as a canoe with one occupant was sailing with a smart breeze towards the Fruin, two large logs were observed rising and falling with the waves. Had the canoe collided with these, as it might have done, seeing they are not easily distinguishable in rough weather, at the pace it was then running, it would assuredly have been stove in and a serious result followed. It is said that these logs are moored there to mark the spot where the disaster occurred lately to the steam lighter. In the interests of public safety, we beg to direct attention to this matter, with the view of warnng parties in pleasures boats and similar small craft, to keep a sharp look-out at the place indicated, where some proper danger signal should be placed. The locality is between the south-west end of lnchmurrin and the shore at Arden”—North British Daily Mail, June 13, 1877

Four years later, one of the best known captains on the loch was drowned in a mysterious accident.

“Man drowned in Loch Lomond. —Captain Dugald M‘Farlane, who resided at Crescent, Alexandria, and who plied on Loch Lomond in his steam lighter Lough Sloy, was drowned on Thursday night, about nine o’clock, between Tarbet and Rowardennan. He had gone to the bow of the craft to light the lamp, and is supposed to have fallen over. A young man was at the helm, who, after some time had elapsed, made a search, but no trace of the deceased could be found. Captain M‘Farlane was a man of steady habits, and much respected”—Scotsman, September 3, 1881

“Mysterious drowning case on Loch Lomond.—Capt. Dugald M’Farlane, who resided at Crescent, Alexandria, and plyed on Lochlomond in his steam-lighter Lough Sloy, was accidentally drowned on Thursday evening about nine o’clock, between Tarbert and Rowardennan. He had gone to the bow of the boat to light the lamp, and as he did not return the young man at the helm made a search, but no trace of the captain could be found. The sad intelligence was conveyed to the Rev. W. Sutherland yesterday morning, who informed the captain’s wife of the melancholy occurrence.”—Greenock Advertiser, September 3, 1881

The Loch Sloy was an iron lighter built by the Abercorn Shipbuilding Co., Paisley in 1877 for John M’Farlan of Arrochar. She was 65½ feet long by 14 feet broad and 6 feet deep, carrying 37 tons. She is seen here at Balmaha unloading wood for the pyroligneous acid works.

In his autobiography, “The Furrow Behind Me,” Angus MacLellan describes unloading coal from a puffer at Rowardennan sometime between 1895 and 1897. It is a marvelous read, translated from the Gaelic by John Lorne Campbell, Birlinn, Ltd., Edinburgh, 1997. The puffer is not named but the captain was named Peter, likely Peter M‘Farlane, mentioned below in the accident where he was drowned.

Lighters continued to ply on the Loch into the twentieth century, but slowly road transport took over. Another tragic accident involved the loss of Captain Peter M‘Farlane.

“The Loch Lomond drowning accident.—A united effort was made Sunday to recover the body of Peter M‘Farlane. who was drowned on Friday in Loch Lomond by falling overboard a steam lighter, of which he was captain and owner. Over 30 crews, with trawling appliances, connected with the Vale Leven and Balloch and Loch Lomond Humane Society, augmented by steam and motor launches, as well as crews managed by Captains M’Farlane and M’Lelland, took part in the operations. Trawling began about 10 a_m., but it was not until 20 minutes to five that the body was recovered, Archibald Wotherspoon’s crew bringing it up about half a mile above Inchmurrin at the north-west corner. The body was taken to Balloch, afterwards removed to Roselea Cottage, where Mr M‘Farlane resided.”—Falkirk Herald, August 24, 1912

“Drowning case in Loch Lomond.—Another drowning accident occurred in Loch Lomond on Friday morning, the victim being Mr Peter M‘Farlane, 60 years of age, owner of several steam lighters which ply the loch. Mr M‘Farlane left Balloch early with boatload of cement. When sailing along the northwest shore Inch Murrin, a shower of rain came on, and to protect the cement Mr M‘Farlane proceeded to place a tarpaulin cover over the bags. In doing so he slipped and fell over the side into the loch. The boatman, who was the only other individual on board, at once got a rope and threw it out to his master, who, however, failed to catch it, and sank, not again appearing. The boatman managed to take the lighter down to the South end of Inchmurrin, where assistance was got, and news of the disaster sent to Balloch. Soon afterwards, Mr. Isaac Lynn proceeded up the loch in a motor launch, and located the spot of the accident. Trawling was engaged in, but the body was not recovered.”—Kirkintilloch Herald, August 21, 1912

“Loch Lomond claims another victim.—Another sad drowning fatality occurred on Loch Lomond last week, the victim being Mr. Peter M‘Farlane, Roselea Cottage, Balloch, a well-known Loch Lomondside man. Deceased, who belonged to Luss district, had been connected with the loch all his days, and knew practically every inch of it. He was a master scow man, and owned two scows which plied between Balloch Pier and the various ports on the loch. He set out on Friday morning in the scow with a cargo of cement for the Arklet Waterworks at Inversnaid, and when passing the island of Inchmurrin he accidentally slipped overboard. It is supposed that he was putting a covering over some of the cargo when he fell into the loch. The only other occupant was a young man who commenced work the scow that week. He threw a rope, but M‘Farlane, it is stated, only rose to the surface once, and disappeared”—Kirkintilloch Herald, August 28, 1912

The final puffer featured is the Mary, owned at Luss, most likely by the Luss Estates. She is old, built of wood, and might well be an old gabbart fitted locally with a steam engine and screw.

The Mary at Camstradden (G. W. Wilson)

Mary, loading slates at Camstradden

Mary, unloading coppiced wood at Balloch Pier

The Leven now has a barrage across it and progress has diverted water, the life blood of the Vale of Leven, to profit other parts of  Scotland. I wonder what the old scowmen would think of it today.

Balloch and Around, James Barr, Dalmadan, South Bend, 2010.

Records and Reminiscences of Bonhill Parish, John Neil, Bennett & Thomson, Dumbarton, 1912.

The Furrow Behind Me, Angus MacLellan, Birlinn,Edinburgh, 1997.

The Story of the Vale of Leven, John Agnew, Framedram, Gartocharn, 1975.