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...

Nationalization

on Feb 9, 2022

For a small boy, one of the treats when going for a sail on the Clyde or a holiday visit on the Firth in the 1950s was to go to the steamer shop or stationery shop when ashore and, after much deliberation, choose a postcard depicting a favourite steamer of the day. Particularly prized were the photographic cards produced by Messrs W. Ralston, Ltd., the premier marine photographers who were renowned for their images of ships on trials. Their series of cards of Clyde Steamers covered most of the important members of the fleet. With the exception of the MacBrayne vessels, the uniform buff, black-topped funnels of the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd., gave the impression that this was standard for a passenger steamer, but careful attention to the photographs gave glimpses of a more colourful age that preceded the utilitarian post-war decade. This article is mostly pictorial in nature. The...

Gourock Railway Pier

on Jun 18, 2021

In 1865, the Caledonian Railway Company purchased the harbour and pier at Gourock. The move anticipated the changes taking place as their main rival, the Glasgow and South Western Railway company sought access to the coast at Albert Harbour in Greenock through the proposed Greenock and Ayrshire Railway, that also provided a route to Greenock from Glasgow. The Greenock Railway, taken over by the Caledonian in 1851, had long enjoyed a monopoly of access to the coast and had built up connecting services to the coast towns and resorts with the private steamboat owners. This monopoly was threatened, not only by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, but also by the North British Railway, on the cusp of the opening of the Helensburgh line providing access to the coast on the north bank of the Clyde, and the Wemyss Bay Railway, offering services provided by the Caledonian itself. The...

The latter days of Duchess of Argyll

on Oct 13, 2018

The early service of the Duchess of Argyll from her launch in 1906 for the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd., to her incorporation into the control of the L.M.S. Railway in 1923, has been recorded earlier in two articles. The present essay is mainly a photographic account beginning in 1925 when the standard livery with buff black-topped funnels was introduced for the combined south-bank railway fleet. As one of the original Caledonian Steam Packet Company’s steamers, Duchess of Argyll was retained under their ownership that allowed greater flexibility in sailing to destinations in Loch Fyne, Kintyre and Lochranza than was possible for the former members of the Glasgow and South Western Railway that were under direct railway control. It was on the Arran route from Princes Pier by way of the Kyles that Duchess of Argyll was best known. In the middle of the 1925 season, however, there was...

Tigh-na-bruaich

on Dec 16, 2017

The village of Tighnabruich lies west of the mouth of Loch Ridden in a sheltered location with spectacular views to the south, down the western arm of the Kyles of Bute. The remote site is passed over in the early guides and accounts of sailing through the Kyles. Lumsden’s Steamboat Companion gives no mention, even in its later editions:— “From Rothesay the channel, for some miles, takes a north-westerly course, leaving the Clyde, and taking the name of the Kyles of Bute, which encircles half the island. Opposite to Rothesay bay is Auchenwilliam, Kirkman Finlay, Esq.; and 2 miles on the left is Port Bannatyne Bay and Village which, as well as Rothesay, is the occasional retreat of sea-bathing visitors; at the head of the bay stands Kames Castle, Hamilton, a romantic situation; and near it, an old tower, in ruins. In sailing through this channel, several agreeable prospects are met...

Southbank Grouping and Tartan Lums

on May 21, 2017

The Caledonian Steam Packet Co. Ltd. had all of its steamships called up for duty in World War I and had to rely on chartered vessels for much of the emergency. As with the other companies that had steamers serving, most of those that had survived the dangerous war time duties returned in dribs and drabs during 1919. Two of the steamers, Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Montrose, had been lost while minesweeping during the war. At the beginning of April, Duchess of Fife returned to the Clyde, followed a few days later by Caledonia, damaged badly in a collision with a freighter on the Seine. In the last week of the month, Duchess of Rothesay arrived and a few days later, the turbine Duchess of Argyll, while Marchioness of Breadalbane appeared on the first of May. The remaining unit of the fleet, Marchioness of Lorne, did not return until 1921 and was laid up in Bowling Harbour for a...