Kirn

Coals to Cowal

on Feb 1, 2024

One of my favourite old postcard views shows the Royal Marine Hotel in Hunter’s Quay. The Hotel was built in 1890 to the design of the Glasgow Architect, Thomas Lennox Watson, and replaced an earlier hotel that was destroyed by fire. It received its “Royal” designation because it was the home of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club for many years. The photograph from which the postcard was printed was taken by Messrs Poulton in the 1890s. Their negative stock was purchased by Messrs Ritchie of Edinburgh and released as postcards as part of their “Reliable Series.” Poulton collotype of the above view Of particular interest are the two old steam lighters, Effort and Advance, on the beach. Both are of the old style and steered by tiller, rather than having a wheel. The Effort looks the simpler and older of the two. Indeed, she was launched by Messrs William Swan & Son at Kelvindock on the Forth...

on Jul 5, 2018

As feuing to the east of Dunoon expanded in the 1840s, the convenience of a pier for this affluent extension of the village towards Kirn became a priority. The pier opened in 1846 and was built opposite the Kirn Inn that had been opened in 1837 and, after the accession of Queen Victoria, changed its name to the Queen’s Hotel, . “Kirn Pier Opening Dinner. On Wednesday last, a most influential and highly respectable company of gentlemen met at dinner in the Wellington Hotel, Dunoon for the purpose of celebrating the completion and opening of the splendid and powerful new wharf at Kirn. The chair was ably filled by John Leadbetter, Esq., the vice-chair by Robert Knox, Esq., writer, Glasgow. To those unacquainted with this important locality, it may be necessary to state, that although the population has been rapidly increasing for years back, the only mode of embarking or disembarking...

Aerial Views of the Clyde

on Mar 4, 2017

Photographs of the Clyde Harbours and Resorts taken from the air and made into postcards have always been popular. They are an easy way of showing where you stay whether all-year-round, or on holiday. The earliest photographs of the Clyde that were released commercially appear to have been the work of an Edinburgh Company in the years shortly after the First World War, around 1920 or 1921. They are generally marked Aerial Photos Ltd., Edinburgh. They include a good selection of the Cowal Coast, including Dunoon, Rothesay and surrounding areas in Bute, and coastal towns in the Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. The photographs are oblique, taken at an angle, rather than the vertical stereo-pairs associated with mapping of later years. Quite a few show some of the steamers of the day. It is not clear what aircraft were used to obtain these photographs. Hunter’s Quay and the...