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....

Railway connections and racing

on Aug 23, 2015

When the Caledonian Railway took over the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway in August 1851, the relationship between the railway and the steamboat owners had reached a low point. However, matters on the water had also greatly changed with the withdrawal of Messrs. G. & J. Burns from the river trade and the proliferation of new ownership. In the following year, 1852, the Caledonian Railway made a determined effort to run its own steamers to the coast resorts and bring the revenue earnings of the railway closer to their potential. “We observe the Caledonian Company have advertised frequent trains to run on the Greenock section of their line after 15th April, which will afford great facilities to our citizens and to the inhabitants of Paisley who reside during the summer months on the coast, by means of these trains and the present steam vessels on the river, as also a superior...

William Findlay Johnstone

on Jul 1, 2015

When Messrs. Burns withdrew from ownership of their Clyde and West Highland Steamers in January 1851, the steamers on the West Highland line went to Messrs. Hutcheson while the Clyde steamers were purchased by a company headed by the shipbuilders, William Denny & Brothers. Of the ships sold to the Denny concern, the Rothesay Castle of 1837, and Inveraray Castle of 1839 were immediately transferred to the ownership of Messrs. Roxburgh for the Glasgow and Lochfyne service. It is reported that the Rothesay Castle was subsequently sold in April 1851 to southern England but she certainly returned to the Clyde and made her way eventually to the Island of St Thomas in the West Indies where she had mechanical problems on her way to Australia. She survived there until May 1855 at least, as she was sold around that month for £420. “The Culloden and the Rothesay Castle, the last of the...