The early history of Kilmun Pier and its improvement by Mr David Napier when he used the location as the eastern end of his new route to Inveraray has been documented in a previous post. The subsequent history of the pier, and the service provided by the Holy Loch boats of Captain Campbell has also been recorded. This essay deals with more modern times, stretching into the 1950s. It is mainly a pictorial record of the village, stretching along the north bank of the Holy Loch, and the steamers that were associated with the route.
In the years before the first world war, the North British Railway steamers, competed for the Holy Loch traffic with those of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company and Glasgow and South Western Railway. All three companies ran a service that provided frequent calls at the pier. Kilmun, with its sheltered location, was an overnight berth for the south bank companies.
The pier itself was a substantial wooden structure extending from the stone quay.
Next to the pier, David Napier had built a hotel.
At the farthest extent of the village inland, there was the Cot House Inn.
Between the Cot House and the Pier, the ancient Kilmun Church housed the burying ground of the Argyll family.
The area is beautiful at all times of the year.
After the first world war, both the L.M.S. Railway through the Caledonian Steam Packet, and the L.N.E. Railway from Craigendoran provided service to the Holy Loch. The L.N.E.R. steamer was generally Dandie Dinmont with the Caledonian steamer was Caledonia until replaced by Marchioness of Breadalbane and the new Marchioness of Lorne in 1935.
There an many reminders of David Napier’s enterprise in the village. Here are the series of six identical villas that Napier erected to encourage feuing. They were locally known as the “tea caddies.”
Finnartmore, the residence of David Napier in Kilmun
While there were fairly good road connections with Dunoon, puffers were frequent callers with coal and other materials.
Marchioness of Lorne provided the service through the second world war are continued for a few years afterwards.
After the appearance of the motor vessels on the Clyde in 1953, the Holy Loch service was commonly the preserve of the Maid of Ashton.
September 15, 2019
Many thanks for the great research that you do, most interesting.
February 3, 2020
Great stuff thanks for posting this online.
May 16, 2020
Very informative, thanks. We have recently moved into one of the houses near Kilmun pier and are delighted to see in your photos what our house looked like in days gone by.
October 29, 2023
Good to see the remarkable fruits of your work. I visited Kilmun recently and was very interested to read about Napier. Would you have any photos of the PO?
January 19, 2024
This has been really interesting and a terrific watch.
The Kilmun Hotel was always a favourite of mine, I loved that building but I was shocked when it was renamed The Pier. This was a disgrace, how could a building with such history be allowed to be renamed and why was planning permission given for that horrendous conservatory to be built on the front, nothing sympathetic to the building there, just a white plastic eyesore.