Faslane #1 - Earls, clans and cattle breeders

For anyone who doesn't know, Faslane is the name of the naval base which hosts the Royal Navy's submarine fleet, including the four that carry the UK's nuclear deterrent Trident missiles. Its correct title is HMNB (His Majesty's Naval Base) Clyde but it's generally known simply as Faslane after the name of the bay it stands on on the Gare Loch off the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. Before delving into the story of the base itself, though, I wanted to see what I could find out about the history of Faslane before it was developed by the Navy in the 1960s.

'The five pound land of Faslane' - so called after the old Scottish habit of identifying land by its taxable value (like a medieval rateable value or Council Tax band) - was a part of the Earldom of Lennox which included the whole of Dumbartonshire plus a chunk of western Stirlingshire as outlined (approximately) on the map above. 

Some time in the first quarter of the 13th century, Donald, the 3rd Earl of Lennox, granted Faslane to his brother, Aulay, to hold as a fief under the earls as feudal superiors. Aulay's descendants adopted the name 'de Faslane'. There was also a castle at Faslane where the 4th Earl entertained William Wallace in 1297 according to Blind Harry (but not anyone else. And BH was about as reliable on Wallace's career in the 15th century as Braveheart was in the 20th.) There's nothing left to see of the castle now as the West Highland Railway to Fort William runs over its site.

Around 1350, Aulay's great-great grandson, Walter de Faslane, married the heiress to the Earldom. Thus did subsequent generations of the Faslane family became the Earls of Lennox. In the 1460s, the earldom passed by the marriage of another heiress to the Stewarts of Darnley. The most famous member of that family was Lord Darnley, son of the 12th Earl of Lennox and ill-fated husband of Mary Queen of Scots: he was baptised in Faslane Chapel. Fragmentary ruins of the chapel (pictures) remain in a cemetery just outside the perimeter of the naval base.

The gates of Faslane Cemetery - the ruins of the chapel are just visible in the shadows above the middle gatepost: Google Streetview

The Earls of Lennox parcelled most of the Earldom out amongst their feudal vassals. Prominent amongst these were the Colquhouns (who I wrote about here and pronounced "Cuh-HOON" for anyone who doesn't know). Beginning at the end of the 15th century, and spreading out from their core territories around Luss on the west shore of Loch Lomond and east of Dumbarton on the north bank of the Clyde, the Colquhouns progressively acquired more fiefs in the west of the Earldom, both directly from the Earls and by purchase from existing vassals. In 1653, Sir John Colquhoun, 19th of Luss, acquired Faslane from the Duke of Lennox (the 15th Earl had been promoted in 1581) along with other lands on both sides of the Gareloch, in Glen Fruin and around Balloch. (Prior to this, Faslane had passed through various owners, including Maxwells and Campbells.) 

In 1693, Colquhoun of Luss sub-feued (granted on perpetual lease) Faslane to Archibald MacAulay of Ardencaple (at Helensburgh) for an annual feuduty (ground rent) of £40 Scots (£3.33 Sterling: about £500 in today's money). The MacAulays had briefly held Faslane in the early 16th century but what, if any, relationship they bore to the Aulay who originally acquired Faslane from his brother, the 3rd Earl of Lennox, in the 13th century, I've not been able to discover (leading me to conclude there's no connection or else we'd know about it). Anyway, Luss bought the feu of Faslane back from Ardencaple in 1751. By the end of the 18th century, the Colquhouns owned nearly all the land along the coast from Helensburgh (a town established by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss in the 1780s and named after his wife) to Arrochar (except the Rosneath peninsula which mostly belonged to the Duke of Argyll).

A final factoid about the Earldom of Lennox before we leave it is that, in 1702, the 7th Duke (an illegitimate son of King Charles II) sold it. The purchaser was James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose, pictured above being played by John Hurt in the 1995 film Rob Roy with Liam Neeson in the title role. It was just the land and feudal superiorities that were sold, you can't sell a title itself, but nevertheless the consequence was that the Colquhouns ended up paying their feudal dues for Faslane to the Grahams of Montrose instead of the Lennox Stewarts. The current Duke of Lennox - who is 26 generations in descent from the 13th century Aulay of Faslane and is simultaneously also the Duke of Richmond and the Duke of Gordon - doesn't own a square inch in Scotland although he does own Goodwood Racecourse and surrounding 12,000 acres in Sussex.

His Grace, the Duke of Richmond, Gordon & Lennox doing what toffs do - let their dogs on the furniture. Photo credit: The Tatler

If the name Faslane is now synonymous with nuclear submarines, in the 19th and first half of the 20th century it was associated with something rather more bucolic and peaceable: cattle breeding. 

Faslane Farm was tenanted under the Colquhouns of Luss as landlord by four generations of a family of MacFarlanes who were renowned cattle breeders. The earliest member of this family I've found record of was the splendidly named Parlan MacFarlane who was tenant of Faslane in 1807: he won second prize for best bull in Dumbartonshire west of the River Leven that year. (I hadn't realised until today that Parlan is the Gaelic equivalent of Bartholomew. MacFarlane is therefore 'son of Bartholomew' because the genetive (possessive) case in Gaelic puts an h after an initial consonant.) 

Parlan was the second generation of his family in Faslane Farm. The first also owned property in nearby Glen Fruin and might have been the George MacFarlane described as a cattle dealer who, in 1751, bought the feu of Faslane from MacAulay of Ardencaple and immediately sold it on to Colquhoun of Luss. I can't be sure of that, though, because MacFarlane is a very common name in north west Dumbartonshire - but it wouldn't be the first time a prosperous tenant had bailed his impecunious landlord out. 

Parlan MacFarlane was succeeded as tenant of Faslane by his son John in the middle of the 19th century. A report of his death in 1900 at the age of 92 in the Dundee Evening Telegraph recorded that:

As a sheep farmer and breeder of cattle Mr Macfarlan [sic] had a wide reputation. He was a judge at the first Paris Exhibition in 1851, and has frequently acted in the same capacity at the Highland Society and other shows. A man of sound judgement, prudence and integrity, he was often employed as a valuator of sheep and land. In local affairs he took a deep and intelligent interest. He was a member of the first School Board, and in the early days of Parochial Boards he proved himself a useful representative. Mr Macfarlan was in many respects a remarkable man and was most deservedly esteemed throughout the County of Dumbarton.    

Highland cattle on the east side of Loch Lomond. The island top right is Inchmurrin, the castle on which was the "chief messuage" - the legal headquarters - of the Earldom of Lennox

John MacFarlane was in turn succeeded as tenant of Faslane by his son, another Parlan. He died in 1948 by which time references to the farm have died out, no doubt because Faslane was overtaken by a new destiny during World War Two. I'll come to that in the next post but finish this one with a thought about the clans of Lennox my researches into the history of Faslane provoked.  

The progenitor of Clan MacFarlane was Gilchrist, also a son of Alwyn, 2nd Earl of Lennox and so a brother of the first Aulay of Faslane who lived in the early 13th century. The eponymous Parlan was Gilchrist's great-grandson. The MacFarlane chiefs owned the huge, but mountainous and sparsely populated, estate of Arrochar which occupied virtually the whole of the Earldom of Lennox west of Loch Lomond north of Glen Douglas: in the 16th century, the estate was known as 'Arrochar-Makgilchrist' in accordance with the peculiarly Lennox habit of adding to the name of a place the name of the family who owned it. The MacFarlanes held the estate as a feudal fief under the superiority of their cousins, the Earls of Lennox (post 1702, the Duke of Montrose), until 1785 when the last chief, John, sold it. The ever acquisitive Colquhouns of Luss subsequently bought Arrochar in 1821. 

Now we're always being told that clanship and feudalism are inimical to each other. Yet in the Lennox, the clans - MacFarlanes, MacAulays and Colquhouns - fitted seamlessly into the feudal system: we even find one clan (the MacAulays) becoming feudal vassals of another (Colquhouns) at Faslane in 1693. In truth, clans and feudalism co-existed perfectly comfortably. As well as that 'vertical' integration, we also find that MacFarlanes have 'leaked out', as it were, of Arrochar which they owned and are living as tenants on the estates of other neighbouring clans (Colquhouns and possibly MacAulays at Faslane and the Colquhouns had other MacFarlane tenants). It's all not nearly as clear cut as the conventional view of clans and the neat coloured blocks of territory on the clan map imply.

Nuclear submarines next time.

The Shandon Hydro

A "colossal pile with its minarets pointing to the sky", as it was once described (here), the building pictured above was demolished in 1960. Looking like nothing so much as the bastard offspring of Balmoral Castle and the Brighton Pavillion it was, in fact, the Shandon Hydro Hotel which stood on the east side of the Gareloch between Rhu and Garelochhead.

Though latterly a hotel, it was originally built in 1852 as the home of Robert Napier, the marine steam engine and shipbuilding magnate. Set in 60 acres of grounds, West Shandon, as Napier called it, was designed by the same architect as designed the Wallace Monument at Stirling and boasted a clock tower (the lower tower to the right), a sculpture gallery and a 165' long conservatory. Not everyone was impressed, though: Professor Kerr, author of The Gentleman's House; or, How to Plan English Residences From the Parsonage to the Palace (here), commented rather sniffily:-

The entrance-hall is much too small, unless we include with it the interior vestibule, which again, if large enough, becomes awkward in form. ... The dining-room must be considered out of rule except as a sitting-room; the character of form is not that of an eating-room at all; ... The offices [meaning the stables etc.] generally are very confined, and not instructive. The same must be said of the museums, picture-gallery and billiard-room in their relations to each other and to other apartments [i.e. rooms].

Ooh! How big are the museums in your house, Professor?

Professor Kerr's criticisms didn't prevent Robert Napier's trustees selling West Shandon after he died in 1876 for £37,500 - about £3.5 million in today's money. The purchaser was the Shandon Hydropathic Company who spent a further £17,000 (£1.6m today) installing Turkish and Russian Vapour baths, fresh and salt water spray and plunge baths and sea water swimming ponds. The conservatory was extended to 350' and a new wing was added (to the right of the clock tower in the pictures: photo pre-extension here and plans here) with 88 bedrooms bringing the total up to 132. In the grounds were tennis courts and a nine hole golf course and a pier was arranged 700 metres north in order that guests might arrive by the steamers of the North British Railway (which at that time terminated at Helensburgh, 5 miles away: when the railway was extended past the hotel on the way to Fort William in 1894, the new Shandon Station was a convenient 5 minute walk away.) If it all seems a bit extravagant, such was the fad for hydros at the time that, when the Shandon Hydropathic Company went public - at its IPO, as we'd say now - after the hotel opened in 1877, the shares were oversubscribed by about a third (between 9 and 10,000 applications for the 7,000 shares offered).  

The Shandon Hydropathic was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1918 for the HQ of a submarine research facility on the Gareloch: model submarines were tested in the hotel's swimming pools. When this closed in 1921, the hotel was sold to a new company the managing director of which was Glasgow hotelier Robert Mitchell: he also had the Imperial Hotel at the top of Buchanan Street and the Kenilworth Hotel at the corner of Argyle and Queen Streets.  (Another director was the MD of The West of Scotland Laundry: like the shipping company that bought the quarries I wrote about here, was this another case of securing your trade by taking a stake in your biggest customer?) The price paid to the Admiralty plus the cost of various improvements totalled around £45,000 (about £2m today and contrast with the £54.5k spent in 1877) and subscribers for £100 or more of shares were promised a 10% discount on the price of stays at the revamped hotel which reopened in July 1922.

An article in The Sphere magazine in 1927 gushed about the facilities on offer at the Shandon Hydro, not least the two gymnasia, one for each sex. You had to be careful about that sort of thing in these days and the absence of single sex swimming pools at the hotel got a Mr Henderson, who lived in a pukkah house in Balloch, into bother in 1933 when his wife sued him for divorce on the basis of his alleged adultery with their neighbour, Mrs Hamilton, who lived in an even more pukkah house two miles up the road on the edge of Loch Lomond. Amongst the episodes averred by Mrs Henderson to establish her husband's infidelity was "an indelicate method of holding" Mrs Hamilton when teaching her to swim in the pool at the Shandon Hydro. The judge was unable to decide on the evidence led whether Mr Henderson had been supporting her by the chin or the body but remarked:

When once it was considered correct for men and women to bathe together, one must expect the stronger sex to help the weaker in their efforts to swim.      

The hotel was also a popular conference venue in the 1930s. These included get togethers of such diverse groups as the Scottish National Party in 1936 (it had only been formed in 1934), the Junior Imperialist Union in 1935 and the National Socialist Organisation (I think 'National Socialist' meant something different in Britain from what it meant in Germany at the time!) and the British and Scottish Esperanto Associations in 1938.

Although the hotel technically belonged to the Shandon Hydro Hotel Co. Ltd, its managing director Robert Mitchell was the licensee and generally regarded as the owner. In May 1936, he offered it for sale but died the same month. The following month his estate was declared bankrupt and I can't help wondering if the sale, the death and the bankruptcy in quick succession were linked? (In fact, the hotel had been sold briefly in 1930 to a Mrs Rathie, previously of the Callander Hydro, but Robert Mitchell seems to have been back in control in 1932.) Anyhow, the new owner from 1937, of both the Shandon Hotel and the late Mr Mitchell's Imperial Hotel in Glasgow, was Donald McLachlan but he'd had little time to consolidate his new acquisitions before the Shandon was requisitioned again at the start of the Second World War. It was used for the accommodation of army units in hutments in its grounds (and with the officers in the hotel itself, I'm guessing). Latterly it was occupied by Polish soldiers. They didn't finally leave until September 1947 and it wasn't until May 1951 that the hotel re-opened, still owned by Mr McLachlan (strictly his company called Shandon Hotel (1937) Ltd).

Advert in The Scotsman via The British Newspaper Archive

The advert above was published on Friday 13 April 1951 and the bad luck thereby presaged seems to have come to pass for, despite the two years of reconstruction and redecoration invested in it, prosperity didn't return to the Shandon Hydro after the War. 

Donald McLachlan died in 1954 of a heart attack while at the helm of his racing yacht on the Clyde. His hotels were inherited by his 25 year old son, Laughton. When his wedding was reported in the Daily Record in 1957 under the headline "Hotel King Weds Girl, 19, In Secret" he was described as 20 stone and Scotland's youngest millionaire. 

In November 1955, the year after Laughton McLachlan inherited the Shandon Hydro, the Daily Record ran a story a under the headline "The rich have gone ...":

Gone are the gay parties, the wealthy American tourists and the rich Scotsmen. The ballroom is silent. The swimming pools are empty. The golf course and tennis courts are deserted. The cocktail bars are closed. Shandon Hydro has fallen on hard times.

But Laughton had a plan: letting the rooms to people on a budget to live there. The prices ranged from 30 shillings (£1.50) a week for a room at the back with a shilling electric slot meter and no phone, through £2:2s (£2.10) a week for a room with burgundy rugs and a loch view up to £4:4s (£4.20) for an 'enormous' bedroom with adjoining sitting room and private bath. Amongst the residents the Record reporter spoke to was Macfie Stewart, 68 (picture below). A retired War Department clerk who'd also seen a bit of life in California and Toronto, he was now living solely on his pension and told the reporter he had to cut down on his food sometimes. He loved the Shandon deal where the food was "very cheap to suit people with a meagre income": breakfast was 1s:10d (£0.09), three course lunch 2s:9d (£0.14) and high tea 1s:3d (£0.06), all dished up at a 'serve-yourself bar' in the dining room: what would Professor Kerr have said? 

Presumably the chef de cuisine referred to in the advert (above) had been dispensed with but Miss Ellis, the manageress since the hotel had re-opened after the War in 1951, was still on station and taking the changes cheerfully: she said she'd had a dozen enquiries that morning, mostly pensioners but including two local workers and a young couple had stayed for a fortnight pending moving into a house in Helensburgh. Another resident was 'frail and entirely' widow, Mrs Bryson. She'd been living in a room (!) in Glasgow, then a commercial hotel until that became too dear even though they'd reduced their price for her: she believed her rheumatism had been much better since coming to Shandon.

Daily Record 2 November 1955 via The British Newspaper Archive

But the prices were obviously too cheap because the following year, 1956, Laughton McLachlan put the Shandon Hydro up for sale by auction. Eminently suitable as a hotel, hospital, hostel, convalescent home, school, research station, caravan or camping ground the auctioneer's advert claimed but it ended up being bought by a demolition firm for £10,500 for the slates, woodwork and fittings etc. - architectural salvage, we'd call that nowadays. Meanwhile, the grounds were converted into a caravan park and that was offered for sale the following year, 1957, at £5,500. The roofless shell of the stripped hotel was blown up by the Navy in 1960.

The Scotsman, 13 April 1960 via The British Newspaper Archive

A postscript on Laughton McLachlan is worth a paragraph. As well as the Imperial Hotel, he was also the owner of Glasgow's George Hotel (and see also here) on Buchanan Street and the Adelphi Hotel on what later became 'Boots Corner' on Argyle Street. In 1957, around the time he was disposing of Shandon, McLachlan acquired a controlling interest in the Eglinton Hotels chain for £1.25 million, at the time Scotland's biggest ever hotel purchase. Amongst the Eglinton portfolio were Edinburgh's George Hotel and Cafe Royal. In 1959, two of its directors requested a Board of Trade enquiry into the company's affairs after its profits mysteriously collapsed from £16,000 to a loss of £31,000 in the wake of the McLachlan takeover. The suspicion was that he was siphoning off from Eglinton to prop up his Glasgow hotels - which would be fine if he owned Eglinton outright but not when there were minority shareholders with no interest in the Glasgow operation but to whom he owed a duty of care. The BoT inspectors concluded there was a "grave suspicion that funds of the Eglinton company were dishonestly appropriated and ... consider that the circumstances are such as to merit a police enquiry." No charges were brought in the end but Eglinton sued McLachlan for £48,000 (about £875k in today's values) for "acting without due regard for the rights of shareholders". That was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. By then also the owner of a Glasgow taxi cab firm, Laughton McLachlan died in 1965 when the helicopter he was piloting crashed: the reports of that described him as the "mystery Scots businessman" with a reputation for being a "colourful person". He sounds like a character in an episode of Taggart.

All that remains of the Shandon Hydro today is the gate lodge:

Google Streetview

... and part of the seafront garden wall and balustrades:-

Google Streetview

And here's what's on the site today:-

Google Streetview

That's taken from almost exactly the same position as the various views of the hotel above. It looks like a prison but it's actually accommodation blocks of Faslane, or His Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde to give it its Sunday name. Compare the two photos below both taken from about the same angle:-

Google Streetview

In a sense, one architectural monstrosity has been replaced with another.

Researching the Shandon Hydro brought me to a fork in the road of things which impact (or used to impact) on the Kyles and Western Isles but which I don't know as much as I should and therefore ought to look into: left for Faslane or right for west coast hydros generally? Eventually I took the left fork and Faslane it is. Coming soon ...

The Gesto Hospital

I've mentioned a few times that I enjoy reading old law reports. Not so much for the points of law they're there to elucidate but for the human interest stories they reveal and local history they can preserve. An example of this par excellence I stumbled across recently was the case of MacLeod's Trustees v MacLeod's Trustees in 1871. It provided the answer to a question that had occasionally puzzled me: why was the former Gesto Hospital on Skye located at Edinbain rather than at Gesto, another place on Skye but about 15 miles away? This is the story:  

Photo credit Martin Sharman

The view above, looking up Loch Harport to the Cuillins, is one of the most familiar in Skye. The conspicuous white buildings in the foreground are the steadings of Gesto Farm but look closer and on the left you'll see the ruin of Gesto House. Here's a closer picture of it:

Photo credit Iain Morrison

The house was built around 1760 and was the home of the most senior cadet branch of the MacLeods of Dunvegan, the MacLeods of Gesto. Their progenitor, who lived at the end of the 14th century, was Murdo, a younger son of Malcolm, the second chief of Dunvegan. Murdo's grandfather had been Tormod, first of Dunvegan and son of the eponymous Leod, and hence the Gesto chieftains' Gaelic patronymic was Mac Mhic Thormoid, pronounced (roughly) 'Mac Vick Orromid' and meaning son of the son of Tormod.

There seems to be some controversy about the exact nature of the earlier generations of the family's tenure of Gesto - were they the feudal vassals of their chief, MacLeod, as the chiefs of Dunvegan were known, or were they direct vassals of the Crown? Be that as it may, what we do know is that John, 8th of Gesto, received a tack (an old Scottish word for a lease) of the land from MacLeod in 1674. Below is an abstract of the tack from The Book of Dunvegan (page 84):

As can be seen there, as well as Gesto itself, the tack included the lands of Boust, Cross Breacle, Rodillore and Feainkeadach. I think the last three are the places spelt on modern maps as Crossbreck, Coillore and Fearan nan Cailleach. In fact, the land let by the tack extended a long way up the east side of Loch Harport.

The rent was 360 merks (£20 Sterling - about £3,000 in today's money) a year and it's interesting to note that MacLeod was in debt to Gesto for the sum of 4,000 merks (£222 Stg., about £30,000 today).

The 1674 tack (lease) was to run for the life of John MacLeod, 8th of Gesto and 21 years thereafter. All we know about the date of his death is that, according to Alexander MacKenzie's History of the MacLeods, his son Roderick, 9th of Gesto, received a tack of the land in 1728. MacKenzie mistakenly states that that was the first tack held by a member of the Gesto family but if he is right about the year, that may suggest that 1728 was when the 1674 tack expired 21 years after the death of John the 8th which must have been in 1707. All MacKenzie says about Roderick's lifespan is that he "was alive in 1745" with the implication that he died soon thereafter. So it was probably his son John, 10th of Gesto, who built the house around 1760.

John the 10th was succeeded as tacksman (tenant) by his son, Captain Neil MacLeod, 11th of Gesto, but he was the last of the family to possess the land. The Captain had for many years litigated ('been at law' in the quaint euphemism of the time) with his landlord, MacLeod of Dunvegan, over the boundaries of Gesto with the adjoining farm of Drynoch at the head of Loch Harport. Although Gesto eventually won his case it was a pyrrhic victory because it provoked MacLeod to refuse to renew the tack of Gesto when it expired in 1825. Thus, somewhat ignominiously, ended the Gesto family's tenure of their ancestral possession of some four centuries: the Captain spent the rest of his life until he died in 1836 between the cottage he rented in Stein on Skye and Edinburgh where he haunted the Advocates' Library obsessing over his legal setbacks.

Kenneth MacLeod - picture credit Wikipedia

It was left to the Captain's third and oldest surviving son, Kenneth, pictured above, to restore the family's fortunes. Born at Gesto in 1809, he spent 30 years in India where he amassed a huge fortune as an indigo planter before returning home in the 1850s determined to spend a lot of his money buying land in Skye. The MacLeods of Dunvegan wouldn't part with Gesto, unfortunately, so Kenneth had to content himself with land they'd previously sold off, namely, the adjoining properties of Greshornish, Coishletter and Edinbane. He also bought the detached farm of Orbost a few miles to the south west making a total estate of some 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) and a rental of £1,100 per annum (about £110,000 in today's money). He made his home on Skye at Greshornish House.

Kenneth MacLeod was the character named simply as "the Landlord" in the book A Summer in Skye by the Edinburgh poet Alexander Smith describing a stay at Greshornish in 1862: Smith was the husband of one of MacLeod's nieces. You can read about MacLeod's social engineering among his crofting tenants in A Summer here - it's all very self made hard man but fair in a way you wouldn't get away with nowadays.

Greshornish House - picture credit Jorg Schafer

Kenneth MacLeod of Greshornish (as he styled himself) died in 1869 leaving a will reciting that his ancestors had:

"for many generations possessed or occupied lands on the west of the island of Skye, and that I am very desirous to continue the connection of my family with the said country after my death, and for this purpose have purchased the lands and others after described [i.e. Greshornish et al.]"

But having no children of his own, the Skye properties were left to his great nephew Kenneth Robertson who adopted the name Robertson-MacLeod in consequence. He was the son of Isabella MacDonald (the daughter of Kenneth MacLeod of Greshornish's sister Ann and her husband, Charles MacDonald, tenant of Ord in Sleat) and her husband, John Robertson, tenant of Skeabost, a farm on the shore of Loch Snizort about 5 miles as the crow flies from Greshornish. (The owner of Skeabost was Isabella MacDonald's brother, Lachlan, thus a nephew of MacLeod of Greshornish, and who, like him, had also been an indigo planter in India.)

Orbost House

All the farm stock and the contents of Greshornish and Orbost Houses were also left to Kenneth Robertson-Macleod but as regards the rest of his considerable wealth, MacLeod of Greshornish had other plans. To quote from another of his wills (he had three in all):-

"Fifth, The house built by me at Edinbane I wish to be converted into a residence for a medical man, and the building attached to be made into a hospital for the benefit of the people of Skye. Rules and regulations for the same I hope to have drawn out before my death, but in the event of death before then, my executors have power to do so, and to be called the Gesto Hospital. Sixth, Having now disposed of my property in Skye, it is my wish and will that all my property in India should be disposed of twelve months, to the best advantage, and that the sum of £10,000 be set aside to endow the Gesto Hospital at Edinbane, and the remainder divided into ten shares and given as follows [here follow various legacies] To Flora MacDonald Smith I bequeath the sum of one penny sterling, in remembrance of her services inducing my services to leave me."

Before we continue with the story of the hospital, note the last sentence there. Flora MacDonald Smith was the niece of Kenneth MacLeod who was married to the author of A Summer in Skye! She's not mentioned in the book but it looks like she was there in the background causing problems in her uncle's household! If anyone knows more about what provoked what one of the judges in the litigations which ensued over MacLeod's wills after his death described as "a mocking bequest indicative of a rather bitter spirit", do please leave a comment. 

In fact, the bequest of a penny wasn't repeated in his final will (although we don't know if it was replaced by a more meaningful one) but, anyway, it wasn't Flora Smith who ended up challenging Kenneth MacLeod's wills in court, it was the heir to the Skye properties, Kenneth Robertson MacLeod (KRM). The reason was this: although MacLeod had been very rich, he had nevertheless considered it expedient also to have borrowed £10,000 during his lifetime. This debt was secured on the Skye properties (meaning they were mortgaged for it) and was still outstanding when he died. The usual rule was that a debt secured on land - known in Scots Law as a 'heritable debt' -  had to be taken over by the heir to the land. But KRM (or rather his parents because he was only six years old at the time) argued that the £10k debt should be paid out of the rest of his great uncle's estate, namely that which had been earmarked for the endowment of the Gesto Hospital: if they were successful in this claim, the hospital would be scuppered. KRM's counsel laid emphasis on the fact that the will containing the hospital bequest had a clause saying that all Kenneth MacLeod's debts had to be paid first before any bequests or legacies could be implemented but the Court decided that that didn't apply to heritable debt: that had to be paid by the heir to the land, KRM. 

But the hospital wasn't out of the woods yet. Another lawsuit was depending before the English courts on a point of Indian law whereby apparently money couldn't be bequeathed for charitable purposes. As there's no equivalent of this in Scots Law, and I know nothing about English/Indian law, I don't understand this: suffice to say the English court eventually ruled that it didn't apply to Kenneth MacLeod. Thus were the legal obstacles cleared away and the Gesto Hospital - Skye's first - secured.

Gesto Hospital around 1930 - a Scholastic Souvenir Company postcard scanned from 'Skye: A Postcard Tour' by Bob Charnley and Roger Miket (here)

The hospital had two wards with six beds each: in 1912 it was recorded that all the beds were full so a Welsh tramp with a broken leg had to be accommodated in the attic! There was one doctor (or 'Medical Officer' as he tended to be known) who lived in the single storey house on the left of the photo above: the doctor from 1896 to 1900 was Lachlan Grant who became famous at his next job at the Ballachulish slate quarries as I wrote about here. There was also a single nurse although that increased to two in the 1930s: also on the payroll in 1930 were a cook and a gardener. There was an operating theatre which in the 1920s was also serving patients from the Uists, there being no such facility there: after a three hour passage across the Minch landing at Dunvegan, the patients were brought to Gesto by horse and trap. Electricity from a hydro-electric plant was installed in 1920. 

The foregoing information is distilled from the chapter on the Gesto Hospital in this book. Note that the author's not correct that the land Kenneth MacLeod bought on Skye was part of the Gesto family's former lands but that minor quibble aside, it's full of interesting detail about the Gesto (and other Skye hospitals). An aspect which particularly interested me related to the hospital's finances: the money MacLeod had left as its endowment (which totalled about £30,000 - about £3 million in today's values - due to his having made it other bequests beyond the Indian £10,000) was lent out at interest by the trustees of the hospital, local Skye landowners, to themselves! Even though these loans were secured by bonds (mortgages) on their estates, it's the sort of thing that wouldn't be likely to pass muster with the Charity Regulator nowadays. And in fact the declining value in the 1930s of one of the estates concerned, Waternish, gave cause for concern - i.e. that the rents paid by its crofting tenants might not cover the interest on the loan and, consequently, that, if the estate had to be repossessed and sold, the price might not be enough to pay off the loan. (It appears the hospital trustees had previously forced the sale of another estate they held a bond over, Skeabost, which had belonged to MacLeod of Greshornish's nephew, Lachlan MacDonald, and was where KRM's father had been the tenant.). Generally, the Gesto Hospital's finances seemed to be pretty fragile until it was taken into the NHS upon its creation in 1947. Below is a description of the hospital just before that in 1946 (click to enlarge for clearer view: the full document is here): 

As the extract above already hints at, such a small hospital in such an old building was perhaps unlikely to have a long term future in the second half of the 20th century. Indeed, perhaps the biggest surprise is that the Gesto Hospital lasted as long as it did because it didn't finally close until 2007, having been latterly a geriatric facility and GP practice (picture of it in 2001 here). After lying empty and boarded up for a number of years (see that here), the building was sold in 2012. Today it's a private home with three associated self catering holiday apartments (website here).

The former Gesto Hospital today - Google Streetview

As regards Kenneth MacLeod of Greshornish's Skye properties, his heir thereto, Kenneth Robertson-MacLeod, died in 1945. In the years following, the estate was divided up with one of his (KRM's) nephews Iain Hilleary acquiring Edinbane, and a niece, Otta Swire (the author), acquiring Orbost. Greshornish (including, I think, Cuishletter) was sold in 1959 to a local butcher, Donald Matheson. After further changes of ownership, Greshornish House is now a hotel and much of the land is forestry in the hands of absentee Germans, representatives of the ancient royal house of Wurttemberg which can trace its history back to the 11th century - which I only mention because Edinbain is still in the hands of the Hilleary family who, through the MacLeods of Gesto and Dunvegan, can trace their history back to the ancient royal house of Man and the Isles in the 11th century.   

The last puffer

The photo above captures a moment in transport history: the type of ship of which the one in the background is a pioneer (a car ferry) is going to put the type of ship in the foreground (a puffer) out of business. The puffer is meeting its nemesis for the first time: 30 years later, the cargo it carries will all be going in lorries carried on the ferries.

The ferry is MacBrayne’s Clansman, one of three sister ships introduced in 1964 which were the first car ferries to operate on the west coast of Scotland outside the Firth of Clyde. The puffer unloading coal, which she would have brought from a port on the Clyde like Troon or Ardrossan, is the Spartan which belonged to a company called Hay Hamilton, one of the ‘big two’ puffer operators at the time. She was built in 1942 and remained in service until 1980.

The photo got me looking in to the history of the puffer fleets and which of them were the last survivors and the following is a write up of my findings. It’s by no means original research and most of my information comes from two sources: Len Paterson’s book The Light in the Glens – The Rise and Fall of the Puffer Trade pictured below. This is a must read for anyone interested in the subject and you can read it free online at Archive.org here. (You have to create an account but it’s free.) And my second source is the excellent ‘Puffers and VICs’ (I’ll explain what a VIC is presently) website by Alastair MacKenzie. It contains a potted history (so far as known) of about 350 puffers (out of around 400 built). Sadly, the site no longer being kept up but you can see the archive here. 

Also essential reading is Keith McGinn's Last of the Puffermen describing life as crew on the puffers in the 1960s and 70s: it's also on Archive.org here. 

So this is what I distilled out of these sources: the puffer was born on the Forth & Clyde Canal in the 1850s basically by the addition of a steam engine to a barge (which tended to be called a ‘scow’ or ‘lighter’) so it could propel itself rather than be towed by a horse. The first ever steam lighter (for some reason one never refers to ‘steam scows’) was the Thomas, a lighter to which a steam engine was added in 1856. If that seems rather late in the history of steam propulsion considering the first commercial seagoing steamship, the Comet, commenced service in 1812, it's because paddle steamers like the Comet had been experimented with on the canal but found impractical, not least because the paddle boxes on either side of the vessel's hull took up too much space in the locks. The breakthrough of the 1850s which made steam practical on canals was propulsion by screw (propeller). The first purpose built steam lighter was the Glasgow in 1857. She and the Thomas could carry about 80 tons of cargo (or in nautical parlance, they had a 'deadweight' (DWT) of 80 tons) and so successful were they due to the economies involved in needing only two boatmen as opposed to two boatmen plus a horse and a horseman that there were about 25 steam lighters by 1860 and 70 by 1870.

A very heavily laden puffer on the canal

Also in the 1870s, steam lighters began to venture out of the canal and into the Firths of Clyde and (to a lesser extent) Forth. There were further economies to be had by the same vessel carrying a load of, say, coal from a colliery along the canal all the way to, say, Dunoon, rather than having to trans-ship the load at Bowling at the west end of the canal into a sailing gabbart (sail powered coastal cargo vessel) to take it to its final destination. Another advantage a puffer had over a sailing vessel besides not being at the mercy of the wind was a steam powered winch enabling the cargo to be unloaded far more efficiently. Thus were the gabbarts gradually put out of business, although a few equipped with auxilliary engines survived as late as the 1930s: there’s a picture of one below:-

The sailing gabbart Anna Bhan at Tobermory in the 1930s

The steam lighters were called ‘puffers’ because of the sound made by the used steam from their engines venting to the atmosphere after each stroke of the piston (the equivalent onomatopoeias in the context of steam railway locomotives are ‘chuff’ or ‘choo choo’). Venting used steam is fine so long as you’re on land with easy access to fresh water to top the boiler up with but that’s obviously less practical at sea. So almost from the outset, the sea going steam lighters had engines which condensed the used steam and recycled it back into the boiler in a closed loop: these engines didn’t ‘puff’ but the name stuck to the sea going steam lighters anyway.

To deal with waters not always as flat as those encountered on a canal, sea-going puffers also had to be equipped with protections such as coamings and hatch-covers. Three types developed: the ‘inside boats’ operated primarily on the canal but might occasionally stick their noses out into the firths; ‘shorehead boats’ operated primarily at sea, only occasionally going into the canal, but never venturing beyond Garroch Head; and the ‘outside boats’. Even more strongly equipped, and with the design tweaked to increase the deadweight (DWT - load carried) to about 120 tons, these could operate in the outer Firth of Clyde, cross to Ireland or transit the Crinan Canal to the north west coast and islands. But all three shared the same dimensions of 66 feet long by 18 feet wide so they could fit in the locks of the Forth & Clyde Canal and giving puffers' hulls their characteristically ‘boxy’ shape: even an outside boat had to fit the locks because, as we shall see, most puffers were built on the canal, even if they planned seldom to return to it.

Screengrab from the title sequence of the 1974 series: full episode here

For many people, their mental image of a puffer is of the Vital Spark in the various television incarnations between 1959 and 1995 of Neil Munro’s Para Handy tales. The distinctive feature of the puffer as seen there (to me, anyway) was the wheelhouse behind the funnel. But puffers, even outside boats like the Vital Spark, only began to be equipped with wheelhouses during the Second World War. The Para Handy stories were written 1905-23 when the helmsman would have stood in the open. So the profile of the Vital Spark would actually have been more like this:-

The puffer Salmon in the Kyles of Bute. Built in the 1870s, she was based at Oban from about 1902 until the late 1930s. Picture and info by kind permission of Graham Lappin

So far as cargoes carried were concerned, coal was the puffer's staple diet but any bulk load could be carried, such as fertiliser or cement or bricks for construction projects. Finding a cargo to return home from the west coast with to improve the profitability of the round trip was a challenge but barrels of whisky from the Islay distilleries was an important one. Another was slates from the quarries at Ballachulish and Easdale (though much diminished after WWI and ended with closure of the slate quarries in the 1950s). One of the puffer firms, Ross & Marshall who we shall meet presently, went so far as to buy a stake in limestone quarries at Glenarm and Carnlough on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland in order to be assured of their cargos (the quarry at the former location is still working though no longer exporting by sea). Seaweed was another important return cargo. I wrote about this here but a company called Alginate Industries Ltd opened three seaweed drying plants in the Outer Hebrides between 1944 and 1965 and puffers were involved in taking wet weed to these and then taking the dried weed from them to AI's factories on the mainland at Barcaldine and Girvan. And last (but not least), puffers would dredge sand under licence from the Crown Estate as owner of the seabed to take back south: if not good enough for concrete making, Glasgow Corporation spread it on tram rails to improve traction in icy weather.       

There's some footage of a puffer, the Saxon, unloading coal at the pier at Millport here (fast forward to 17:20) but the beauty of the puffer was that, with its relatively flat bottom, it could serve remote island or mainland communities without a pier: if the Vital Spark is one enduring image of a puffer, the other is one beached and unloading to a horse and cart at low tide.

A beached puffer unloading to a horse and cart at Sanna in Ardnamurchan. Picture credit: Jon Haylet

Turning to the puffer fleets, most were owned by individuals or small firms owning just one or two boats but there were also some bigger fleets. Foremost was the firm of J & J Hay. William Hay had been a farmer beside the canal at Kirkintilloch who diversified into owning scows (barges) in the 1830s and by 1842 he was building them as well. He was followed into the business by his sons James and John. In 1867, they acquired a shipbuilding yard on the south side of the canal at Southbank Street in Kirkintilloch, immediately west of the bridge carrying the main street of the town over the canal. By 1945, when they launched their last ship (the Chindit), J & J Hay had built 64 vessels, 61 for their own fleet. (For corporate reasons, the company was actually called J Hay & Son Ltd between 1921 and 1956 but was J & J Hay Ltd the rest of the time.) From 1945 until the canal closed in December 1962, Hays' yard remained in business as a repair facility. This is what its site looks like today and it explains the name of the Wetherspoons' pub across the road: The Kirky Puffer  

The Briton being launched sideways into the canal at J & J Hay's yard at Kirkintilloch in 1905. Picture by kind permission of Graham Lappin

Hay's yard was to the left of the bridge. Follow this link for a high res version of that pic you can zoom in on and see a vessel under construction in the yard. Another aerial pic here.

To begin with, Hays' puffers' names were usually first names beginning with A (e.g. Agnes, Albert, Alfred, Alice, Amy, Arthur) but from the 1890s they adopted the theme of races or tribes: we've already met the Spartan, Saxon and Chindit in this series and there were many more including the Kaffir pictured below heavily laden in the Crinan Canal at Ardrishaig:-

Ross & Marshall of Greenock was formed in 1872 by the amalgamation of the businesses of Alexander Ross, a coal merchant as well as puffer operator, and James Marshall who owned the Clyde Stevedoring Company. They also built some of their own ships and all were named ending in '-light' (e.g. Raylight, Skylight, Starlight etc.) or less commonly '-lite' (e.g. Mellite).

Ross & Marshall tended to concentrate more on the trade beyond the Firth of Clyde. In this regard, the locks on the Crinan Canal were 88 feet long compared with the Forth & Clyde's 66 feet so R&M were early exponents of a longer 'Crinamax' class of puffer with a DWT of 180 tons such as the Warlight (I) pictured below.

Warlight (I) in the Sound of Mull. The red, white and black funnel was Ross & Marshall's house colours. Picture credit: Andy Carter 

Hamilton & MacPhail was formed in 1948 by the merger of G & G Hamilton of Brodick in Arran and the business of Colin MacPhail. The Hamilton family had been in the costal shipping business since 1828 when the second and third generations, Adam and his sons, George and Gavin, moved into steam navigation in 1895 with their self built puffer, the wooden Glencloy (I). Their subsequent ships all had Arran themed names. Colin MacPhail had been in business since 1903 with vessels named after Loch Fyne glens. The merged fleet consisted of Rivercloy, Invercloy (II), Glencloy (III) and Glenrosa (I) from Hamiltons and Gleannshira and Glenaray from MacPhails.

G & G Hamilton's Glencloy, third of that name in their fleet, is seen here at Brodick. She was an 85' 'Crinamax' puffer built in 1930 which served until scrapped in 1967

Now we need to talk about VICs. It stands for 'Victualling Inshore Craft' and was a class of vessel commissioned by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) during WW2 to tender to Royal Navy ships at dockyards in Britain and throughout the Empire (e.g. Malta and Hong Kong). 63 VICs were built to J & J Hay's design for a 66 foot puffer and a further 39 80 foot VICs were also built (though I'm not sure who's design the latter were). All, of both classes, were built in England except for one 66 footer built by Hays at Kirkintilloch. And all, of both classes, were named simply VIC plus a numeral (eg. VIC1, VIC2, etc. up to VIC106: four numbers - 13, 58, 100 and 104 were not allocated).

After the war, many VICs were declared surplus (though many remained with the Navy too, the last one - VIC65 - surviving until 1979). Nineteen were acquired by the puffer operators to replace their older tonnage: J & J Hay bought three 66 footers (VIC11 renamed Zulu, VIC18 (Spartan: this was the one they built) and VIC87 (Dane)) and two 80 footers (VIC64 (Celt) and VIC82 (Sir James the only vessel in the Hay fleet in the 20th century not to have a 'race/tribe' name). Ross & Marshall bought two 66 footers (VIC23 renamed Limelight and VIC26 (Polarlight)). G&G Hamilton acquired 66 footer VIC29 renamed Glenrosa and Colin MacPhail acquired VIC89 renamed Glenaray (there's a few seconds of footage of her here at 01:17) Eight more 66 foot VICs and two other 80 footers were acquired by private operators.

Hamilton & MacPhail's Glenrosa ex VIC29 in the Crinan Canal at Bellanoch Bridge

Although the smallest of the 'big three' puffer companies at their formation in 1948, Hamilton & MacPhail were the most forward thinking. An experiment with diesel engined puffers had been made in the 1910s (six vessels built at Hays with names Innis- (e.g. Innisgara) for the Coasting Motor Shipping Co. Ltd) but they hadn't been a success: motor vessels' time hadn't quite come for coasters then but it had by the 1950s. H&M broke new ground in 1953 by commissioning the first newbuild diesel engined puffer since the failed experiment. She was the 84 foot 'Crinamax' Glenshira built at Scotts of Bowling.

The Glenshira at Bellanoch Bridge on the Crinan Canal. The puffer in the background appears to be independent operator Alexander McNeil's Logan. Picture credit Robert Sinclair

 

A diesel engine and its fuel tank took up far less space than a 12 foot boiler with its chimney on top plus the engine itself and bunkers for 10 tons of coal to fuel it. So the wheelhouse could be moved forward to where the top of the boiler and the chimney had been and the exhaust pipe from the engine, encased in a largely decorative funnel, could be moved aft of the wheelhouse. A lot of space was freed up aft for much improved crew accommodation (which had hitherto been in the fo'c'sle) and the Glenshira had a DWT (carrying capacity) of 190 tons compared with the 180 of a steam 80-85 foot ‘Crinamax’.

The Glenshira unloading coal at Scarinish on Tiree.

The second diesel puffer was the Pibroch (II) built at Scotts of Bowling for Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd in 1957. A very similar vessel to the Glenshira, she replaced the Pibroch (I), a traditional 66 foot steam puffer built in 1923 which SMD used to take grain to, and barrels of whisky from, their distilleries on Islay.

The Pibroch (II) in the Clyde. Photo credit: BOBBY

Also in 1957, Ross & Marshall had planned their new ‘Crinamax’ Stormlight (III) to be diesel powered but they got cold feet at the last minute when political instability in Iran caused an oil shock so she was completed with steam power. For all its faults, at least coal was produced at home in Britain which oil wasn't at that time. This made the Stormlight the last steam powered puffer to be built but she was subsequently converted to diesel in the late 1960s .

In 1958, Hamilton & MacPhail achieved another first by being the first firm to commission a ship for the West Highland trade too big to fit the Crinan Canal locks. This was the 110 foot Glenshiel with a DWT of 240 tons.

The Glenshiel loading coal at Troon. Picture credit BOBBY

Lagging behind their competitors somewhat, it wasn't until 1959 that J & J Hay commissioned their first motor vessel, the 240 ton DWT Druid (III) pictured below:

The Druid (III) off Wemyss Bay. Photo credit: Ballast Trust 

At the same time as ordering the Druid, Hays began a programme of converting to diesel their four newest steamers, the 66 footers Lascar, Anzac, Kaffir and Spartan (ex VIC18). As with the new motor vessels, the space freed up by the removal of boiler and chimney was reallocated to improved crew accommodation (the four portholes in the pictures below) and the wheelhouse could be brought forward with the exhaust pipe from the engine going up behind it.

A puffer in the motor era: the Spartan, converted to diesel in 1961, discharging to trailers hauled by tractors on the beach at Iona

At this point, I have to introduce a self imposed terminological point: try as hard as I might, I can't think of a ship too big to use the Crinan Canal, or one of any size built as a motor vessel, as a 'puffer'. So from hereon, I'm going to call these 'coasters' and I reserve the term 'puffer' (or 'canal boat') for ships built as steamers and that could fit the canal, including after they'd been converted to diesel.  

Two motorised puffers, Anzac and Lascar, at Scarinish, Tiree in the 1960s

In 1962, tragedy struck J & J Hay when the Druid capsized at the mouth of the River Ribble with the loss of all her crew. Adding the fact that they were about to lose their yard at Kirkintilloch due to the impending closure of Forth & Clyde Canal at the end of that year, Hays were at a low ebb. So the merger the following year, 1963, with Hamilton & MacPhail was unsurprising. The new firm of Hay Hamilton was, in effect, a marriage between H&M's motor vessels Glenshira and Glenshiel and Hays' four motorised 66 foot puffers, Kaffir, Anzac, Lascar and Spartan. Hays' remaining steam puffers, all 66 footers - Turk, Slav (these two were shorehead boats which had never been fitted with wheelhouses), Gael, Texan, Dane (ex VIC87), Inca, Cretan and Boer - were all scrapped over the next two years as was H&M's steamer Glenaray (ex. VIC89). Two other H&M steamers - Glencloy (III) and Invercloy (II) - were reprieved until 1967 because they'd been converted to oil burning in 1948. Meanwhile, two new motor coasters had been commissioned, the almost identical 109'/240 ton DWT sisters Glenfyne (1965) and Glencloy (IV) (1966). Hay's 'race/tribe' naming theme was never revived after the loss of the Druid and this Glencloy turned out to be the last newbuild for service in the Clyde and West Highland trade.

1960s newspaper advert for Hay Hamilton. The ship is the Glenfyne or the Glencloy

In 1963, at the same time as Hays and Hamilton & MacPhail were merging, Ross & Marshall was taken over from the Campbell family, coal merchants who had owned it since the retirement of its eponyms in 1913, by Clyde Shipping Company Ltd. A firm which could trace its origins in shipping on the Clyde back to 1815, its focus in the 1960s was on the coastal cargo trade and tug boats: it was the owner of the fleet of tugs with the 'Flying' names (e.g. Flying Spray, Flying Phantom etc.) 

Under the new management, a similar process of transition from steam puffer to larger motor coaster got underway at R&M. They commissioned the new motor vessels Raylight (II) (97'/180t) and Dawnlight (107'/240t) in 1963 and 1965 respectively, two very similar looking boats except for the latter being 10 feet longer. R&M also bought four second hand vessels between 1963 and 1966 (Limelight (II), Moonlight (IV), Polarlight (III) and Warlight (II).) Meanwhile, eight steam puffers were disposed of by scrapping or sale to smaller operators over the period 1963-68 (Raylight (I), Sealight (II), Limelight (I) (ex. VIC23), Polarlight (II) (ex. VIC26), Moonlight (III), Starlight (II), Mellite and Warlight (I))

Ross & Marshall's 1963 coaster Raylight (97'/180t) at Craignure in 1974. The vessel behind her is the puffer Marsa (ex. VIC85). Picture credit: Alan Reid.

I don't know for sure which was the last steam powered puffer to trade. Even the collected wisdom of the Clyde Puffers Facebook group couldn't agree on this and I'm surprised it's not a well known maritime heritage milestone! But I think it might have been the Sitka. She had been Ross & Marshall's 66' canal boat Skylight (III) which they sold to a Troon timber merchant in 1967 and her Puffers & VICs entry tells us they converted her to diesel in 1969. Another possibility is the Stormlight (III), the one built by R&M in 1957 which had been going to have been diesel but was changed to steam at the last minute which was converted to diesel after R&M and Hay Hamilton merged (see below) which was in October 1968. If anyone has another candidate for last steamer, please do leave a comment.   

Glencloy (III), seen here on the beach at Iona in 1955, was one of the last steamers. Sold by Hay Hamilton in 1966 to A McNeil & Co of Greenock, they changed her name to Glenholm but scrapped her a year later. Photo credit: Barry Lewis 

Although Ross & Marshall and Hay Hamilton, had modernised and rationalised their fleets, trading conditions had become challenging in the 1960s. Penetration of better roads to more places on the mainland led to more bulk loads going by road, particularly around the Firth of Clyde. As far as the islands were concerned, road transport's hand maiden is the car ferry. These were introduced to the Clyde islands in the mid-1950s and to Mull and the Outer Hebrides in 1964 but all these ferries operated by 'hoist loading' (vehicles taken four or five at a time on a sort of 'dumb-waiter' lift from the pier down to the vehicle deck rather than driving straight on to the vehicle deck down a ramp as nowadays). This was fine for tourists' cars but less suitable for heavy lorries. So these first ferries were not yet too much of a threat to the coasters and puffers. But that began to change in 1968 with the introduction of a ro-ro (drive directly on to the vehicle deck) ferry to Islay by the private firm Western Ferries. The island's distilleries provided both outward (coal, malt, barrels) and inward (whisky) cargos which added up to about a third of the total tonnage carried by HH and R&M. In the face of these threats to their business, it made sense for them to merge and this happened in October 1968, the merged company being called Glenlight after the companies' respective vessel naming conventions. The merger also brought into the Glenlight fleet the two 66' motorised puffers belonging to Irvine Shipping and Trading in which R&M owned a 50% share, the Lady Isle (II) (ex. VIC9) and Lady Morven (ex. VIC37). 

The Lady Morven beached near the head of Loch Sunart in 1973. She had belonged to Irvine Shipping & Trading and became part of the Glenlight fleet in 1968. Photo credit: David Taylor

To begin with, HH and R&M remained in existence, albeit in the background so far as the public was concerned, and merely chartered their ships to Glenlight (GL) which managed and marketed them. But HH sold out to R&M's holding company, Clyde Shipping Co., in 1974 whereupon a full merger took place. It was at this time that GL's red hull and light buff superstructure livery was adopted.    

Advert in the Stornoway Gazette, April 1969

The ro-ro ferry to Islay took about half of GL's distillery business within a year and five years later, in 1973, about 85% of it had gone. With ro-ro ferries now being deployed to the other islands and demand for coal having declined considerably after towns like Rothesay, Dunoon, Campbeltown and Oban converted to natural gas in 1974 (gas had been provided hitherto by municipal gasworks in each town which produced gas ('town gas' or 'coal gas') by heating coal taken there by puffers), further fleet rationalisation was called for. Four vessels were disposed of between 1972 and 1974, these being Warlight (II), Polarlight (III), Glenshira (the groundbreaking first diesel 'puffer') and Lascar (pre-WW2 66' motorised puffer). 

But it wasn't all bad news: road salt for gritting roads in winter was becoming a significant cargo, its growth to an extent making up for the decline in coal (so the coasting trade was benefiting from a crumb off the table of road transport which was otherwise stifling it). And concrete oil rig construction at Ardyne Point opposite Rothesay between 1974 and 1978 provided a lot of work. This coupled with the prospect of more oil rig work from 1976 at Kishorn in Wester Ross where it was a planning condition that no construction material could be brought onsite by road meant that the loss of four vessels between 1973 and 1975 - Glenshiel (the 1959 first coaster too big for the Crinan Canal); Stormlight (III) (wrecked at Jura); Kaffir (66' motorised puffer wrecked at Ayr); and Raylight (II) (1963 coaster wrecked near Larne) - now placed Glenlight in the position of needing more tonnage, specifically of the larger type of ship more suited to the new trading patterns.

The wreck of the Kaffir is still visible at low tide just outside Ayr Harbour. You can see her mast here. Photo credit: Bill Ryder 

In 1978, Glenlight acquired four second hand sister ships of 137 feet length and 340 tons DWT from the Thames coastal shipping firm, Eggar Forester. In accordance with the naming traditions of the two ancestor companies of Glenlight, these were renamed Glenetive, Glenrosa (II), Polarlight (IV) and Sealight (III). At the same time, the 1966 coaster Glencloy (IV) was disposed of.

Glenrosa (II) and Glenetive at Greenock. Photo credit: harrisman

In 1979, with the oil rig work now at an end, Glenlight suffered another blow by losing the seaweed trade when Alginate Industries began to send it south by lorry carried on Caledonian MacBrayne's ferries. As Calmac - which was also a road haulage firm at this time - was in receipt of state subsidy, it could afford to undercut GL's prices. This prompted a another round of debate about unfair competition in the west coast shipping industry between the state subsidised public sector and private enterprise. (The first round, ironically, was in the mid 70s when Western Ferries, operator of the pioneer ro-ro ferry to Islay which had taken the whisky trade from GL, accused the Government of trying to put them out of business by deploying a subsidised Calmac ro-ro ferry to the island.)

The competition: an advert for Calmac's freight services in the Scotsman in September 1974. The text refers to the main function of their new ferry - called the Pioneer, ironically - being "the commercial Islay traffic in which whisky figures largely" which must have been galling for Western Ferries!  

The Government eventually agreed to subsidise Glenlight from 1981. There were two elements to the subsidy: first, the so-called 'Tariff Rebate Scheme' whereby the Government paid a proportion of freights. So, for example, if it cost £10 to deliver a ton of coal somewhere and the TRS was 30%, the customer paid £7 and the Government paid £3. This was designed to assist the fragile economy of the West Highlands and Islands by mitigating their delivery costs while assisting GL to the extent of allowing them to set charges slightly higher than these markets might otherwise be able to bear. But TRS was hardly a licence to print money, though, because the second element of the subsidy was straight deficit funding, i.e. making up GL's losses.

But once again, it wasn't all bad news at the beginning of the 1980s. A new growth area was emerging: timber from the plantations established by the Forestry Commission after WW2 in places like Kintyre, Mull and Morvern which were beginning to mature for the first time. From a first cargo of logs loaded at Lochaline in 1980, six years later Glenlight was carrying 16,000 tons of them a year. Timber was the all important return cargo: the logs came south on a ship returning from a voyage north with coal or, increasingly as the 1980s progressed, road salt. To deal with the new timber trade, a second hand 750 ton DWT vessel renamed Glencloy (fifth of that name in the fleets of GL and its ancestor companies since 1895) was acquired in June 1986 while the two remaining 1960s 240 ton DWT coasters, the Glenfyne and the Dawnlight, were sold in 1988. The biggest customers for logs were the Caledonian Paper Mill at Irvine (the logs being landed at Troon, I assume) opened by Finnish company UPM-Kymmene in 1989 and the paper mill at Workington in Cumbria owned by Swedish firm Iggesund since 1987 (now called Holmen).  

Glencloy (V). Photo credit: davidpearson8

In 1986, the Government announced it would cease paying deficit funding from the following March. That gave Glenlight a major headache because it had been keeping its charges in the Highlands and Islands artificially low in the knowledge that the deficit funding would keep them out the red. (Its charges in other areas were at normal commercial rates and GL was making a profit there.)  Protracted wrangling, consultations and reviews ensued. Deficit funding was temporarily extended but finally ended in April 1988. It was replaced by a revised Tariff Rebate Scheme in which, amongst other unhelpful changes, local authorities were no longer eligible for the discounts. As LAs were the customers for road salt, the possibility of them switching to road and ferry transport in the face of a dramatic hike in shipping costs would not only threaten about a third of GL's turnover but also have a knock on effect on its timber trade (another third of turnover) whose prices were able to be fixed at a lower level on the assumption that the ship taking the logs south had earned from a cargo of salt carried on the voyage north to collect them. 

After further negotiations, the details of the TRS were tweaked a bit and GL decided to soldier on in the hope that the ballooning timber trade would be their salvation (35,000 tons were being carried in 1989, this being projected to rise to 100,000 tons by 1995 and 300,000 tons by 2000) and that the Government might eventually see sense over subsidy. Thus, when one of the Eggar Forrester quadruplets, the Polarlight (IV), was lost in the Irish Sea in February 1989, instead of accepting the enforced retrenchment, she was immediately replaced by a second hand 400 ton DWT coaster renamed Glenfyne (II).

The Glenfyne (II), left, and Glencloy (V), right, at Belfast. Photo credit: Alan Geddes

In 1992, Glenlight began to experiment with the 'tug and barge' concept for the timber trade. This involved a barge capable of carrying 600 tons of logs, built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast and appropriately named Sprucelight, which could be beached on a shore near a forest. Timber lorries could drive on to her, deposit their loads directly on board and, when full, she would be towed south by a tug belonging to Glenlight's parent company, Clyde Shipping. 

One of Glenlight's barges loading logs at Raasay. Picture credit: Forestry Memories

A second barge, Pinelight, followed in 1993. The plan ultimately was to have three barges served by one tug - one barge loading, one discharging and one on passage being hauled by the tug. Sending timber south by sea will always struggle to compete with dispatching it by road because a lorry offers a door to door service from the forest direct to the mill whereas shipping logs involves unloading them onto the pier, reloading them onto the ship, and reloading them again at the port of destination onto a lorry to the mill. Tug and barge was an attempt to improve the economics by removing one of these steps (the unloading of the logs at the pier of departure) and having one ship (the tug) do the job of three (the barges): there's a good article in the Glasgow Herald in 1993 about it here.      

Also in 1993, GL bought the 1,200 ton DWT coaster they'd been chartering and renamed her Glenrosa (III) (The second Glenrosa, one of the Eggar Forrester quadruplets, had been sold in 1990 as had one of the others Glenetive. The last one, the Sealight (III), was wrecked in Loch Maddy in 1991.)

Meanwhile negotiations over subsidy rumbled on. The Government restored deficit funding in 1992 pending yet another review of the workings of the Tariff Rebate Scheme. But this was delayed and deficit funding wasn't renewed in 1993. Unwilling to sustain any more losses while the Government dithered, Glenlight gave notice that it would cease trading with its conventional ships (Glencloy (V), Glenfyne (II) and Glenrosa (II)) from the beginning of 1994. The two barges were retained but they too ceased operations in 1995 when the long delayed review led to the abolition of TRS. (The third barge never came to pass but the first two still exist, with their original names Sprucelight and Pinelight, albeit no longer carrying timber: the former in Devon, the latter in Greenland. I doubt their operators today realise the names encapsulate 120 years of Scottish maritime tradition and an attempt to future proof it! The Glencloy (V) was destroyed by fire in the Caribbean in 2013 but the Glenfyne (II) survives in Norway as the Kyst. The Glenrosa (II) appears no longer to exist.)

Great Glen Shipping Company's CEG Universe at Lochaline

Thirty years later and the transport of timber down the west coast is still very much a thing. (If for no other reason, I know that because I saw a ship loading logs at Lochaline - above - when I sailed past on the Barra ferry in January.) I haven't looked into it in any detail (note to self to do so) but a moment or two's googling revealed the Timberlink service whereby, since 2000, the Scottish Government has subsidised Associated British Ports, who own Troon and Ayr harbours, to carry timber from Campbeltown, Ardrishaig, Ardcastle (near Lochgair on Loch Fyne) and Sandbank on the Holy Loch to Troon using ships chartered in for the purpose. And this page suggests a number of other companies are also involved in the trade beyond the Clyde. I don't know what the economics of their operations are but I imagine they're not doing it for the good of their health: it looks as if Glenlight might have been just a bit too early on the scene. 

In the the course of my brief google into the current scene, I came across the picture below: a bulk carrier devloped from a barge to which an engine and a propeller has been added and that can be beached on a Highland coast - does that sound familiar? History seems to have come full circle! 

Red Princess loading logs at Loch Striven. Picture credit: Troon Tugs

In digressing off into the fate of Glenlight, I've rather lost sight of puffers (by which I mean vessels which could fit the Crinan Canal and built as steamers, even if subsequently converted to diesel). To re-cap, GL inherited six of them at formation in 1968: Anzac, Lascar, Kaffir, Spartan (ex VIC18), Lady Isle (ex VIC9) and Lady Morven (ex VIC37). As already noted, consumption of the puffer's traditional staple cargo, coal, declined by more than a half during the 1970s and GL were re-orienting their fleet towards the larger ships more appropriate to the new areas of work in that decade (oil rigs, road salt). All that said, the puffers were still suited to GL's contract servicing to the US Navy in the Holy Loch (a floating submarine dry dock with attendant tender vessel USS Holland) and deliveries of coal to remote Highland and Island locations were still a thing, albeit becoming less frequent.

The Kaffir at Salen, Loch Sunart in 1973. Picture credit: David Taylor

As also already mentioned, the Kaffir was wrecked in 1974. The Lascar was on the US Navy Holy Loch work but was sold that year, as was the Lady Isle. She was replaced on that job by the Anzac. In 1976, Glenlight bought the Pibroch (II) (not strictly a puffer by my way of thinking as having been built with a diesel engine) from Scottish Malt Distillers, she having been made redundant by the ro-ro ferries to Islay. In September 1976, the Anzac was disposed of and replaced on the Holy Loch contract by the Spartan. I don't know when the Lady Morven was sold but it must have been before 1980 which is when the last puffer (not counting the Pibroch) in the GL fleet, the Spartan, was disposed of: she was donated to the Scottish Maritime Museum at Irvine where she still is (see here and here). That left the Pibroch on the Holy Loch work until she too was disposed of in 1984 (see here).

But although the Spartan was the last Glenlight puffer in service (or the Pibroch if you regard her as one), neither of these was the last overall. There were another five that made it into the 1970s: I've already mentioned the Sitka as candidate for the last steam puffer and she seems to have been working on the Clyde past the middle of the decade. There were also the Toward Lass (ex VIC12) and the Colonsay (II) (ex VIC84) owned by M Brown & Co. of Greenock and employed on the very unglamorous task of removing waste from the US Navy at the Holy Loch - they weren't scrapped until 1980. 

Beyond the Clyde, Hugh Carmichael of Mull had the Marsa (ex VIC85) and the Eldesa (ex VIC72) mainly running timber from Craignure pier to the pulp mill at Corpach. He disposed of the Marsa in the late 70s and she never traded again after that [EDIT - see the comment below from Alistair Bennett re the Marsa] but he retained the Eldesa until he retired in 1983 (I remember seeing the Eldesa often when I used to going sailing out of Oban in the mid/late 70s.) She was sold to Easdale Island Shipping Line Ltd. They changed her name to Eilean Eisdeal and traded with her "taking bagged coal around the islands and lifting roadstone and aggregate from Bonawe [quarry], with of course a subsidy", according to someone who sounds like he knows what he's talking about here. EISL ceased trading in 1994, shortly after Glenlight did, when the Government withdrew the Tariff Rebate Subsidy so I think it's the Eilean Eisdeal which claims the crown of 'the last puffer.'

A picture I took of the Eilean Eisdeal at Uig in 1991. At the time I don't think I realised I was looking at 'the last puffer'

It's already happened in the course of this post but Para Handy and the Vital Spark are never far away from any discussion of puffers but which vessels were used in the various television series? 

There were five TV series. The first was in 1959-60 (in black and white, of course) with Duncan Macrae as PH, John Grieve as MacPhail, the engineer, and Roddy MacMillan as Dougie, the mate, but I don't know which puffer was used. Then there were two series, also b/w, broadcast in 1965 and 1966 with Roddy MacMillan promoted to PH, John Grieve still as MacPhail and Walter Carr as Dougie. The ship used was the Saxon. As her name suggests, she started as a J & J Hay boat but they sold her to the Kerr brothers of Millport in 1926 who used her almost exclusively to take coal there. Her role as the Vital Spark explains why you can see lifebelts with that name on them in the video clip of her I linked to further up. She retired in 1967, still a steamer.

This was the edition my parents bought me at Inveraray in 1973. The cover image appealed to me greatly but I was a bit young to appreciate the stories. And I think the 1974 TV show was only ever on after my bed time.

The first colour series of The Vital Spark was in 1973-74, same cast, and the ship used was the Sitka (ex. Skylight). And the last series was in 1994-95 with Gregor Fisher as PH and Rikki Fulton as MacPhail. The ship used was one I haven't mentioned so far, the Auld Reekie (ex VIC27). She was acquired from the Admiralty in 1966 having been working at Rosyth but only traded in civilian life for a couple of years before being purchased in 1968 by Sir James Miller, the Edinburgh house building magnate. He converted her into a youth training vessel sailing out of Oban before selling her again in 1978 (I can also remember seeing her in the 70s.) I'm not sure what she was doing between then and appearing in Para Handy in 1994. After that she languished on the Crinan Canal deteriorating until 2008 when she was acquired by Crinan Boatyard. She is now on their slip there undergoing slow but very thorough restoration: see the website for more detail. It's worth noting that the Auld Reekie was never converted to diesel and she was still steam powered when doing her youth training cruises in the 1970s. But I didn't include her in the last steam puffer stakes because I meant the last cargo rather than passenger carrying steam puffer.

The Auld Reekie at Crinan still carrying her fictional Vital Spark titles from the 1994-95 series. Picture credit: frcrossnacreevy

There's another Vital Spark as well. This is the retired puffer lying at Inveraray since 2001. This is, in fact, the Eilean Eisdeal (ex Eldesa, ex VIC72), the last working puffer. I understand that her owner wanted to officially rename her Vital Spark but that name was already taken by another boat so he chose Vital Spark of Glasgow instead: the "of Glasgow" isn't painted on her bows and at the stern it looks like her port of registry.

The Vital Spark of Glasgow (ex Eilean Eisdeal, ex Eldesa, ex VIC72) at Inveraray. Picture credit: Anne Young

And finally, no discussion of present day puffers is complete without mention of the VIC32. She is the only puffer left in sailing condition, unless the Vital Spark of Glasgow at Inveraray is, which I don't know. Certainly, the VIC32 is the only operating steam puffer left (at least until the restoration of the Auld Reekie is complete) as she was never converted to diesel. But like the Auld Reekie, I didn't include her in the last steam puffer discussion because she too never traded with cargo on the west coast of Scotland. Based at Crinan, she now offers cruises: see the website here.    

The VIC32 and the Rothesay ferry - such coal as is consumed there nowadays goes on the latter. Picture credit: ArgyllFoto

Well, this post ended up being miles longer than I imagined so if anyone's read this far and has spotted any mistakes or can add any details, please leave a comment. Here are some superb galleries of images of puffers: here, here and here and I leave you with a puffer timeline:-

1856 - steam engine and propeller added to a Forth & Clyde canal lighter (scow or barge), the Thomas, for the first time: the first puffer.

1857 - first purpose built steam lighter ('puffer'), the Glasgow.

1860 - by now 20 puffers on the F&C Canal.

1867 - James and John Hay form the firm of J & J Hay (the fleet with the 'race/tribe' names e.g. Briton, Serb, Spartan etc. from the 1890s) begin building puffers at Kirkintilloch on the F&C Canal and owning operating them on the canal and then at sea. 

1870 - by now 70 puffers and beginning to venture beyond the canal.

1872 - Ross & Marshall (the fleet with the '-light' names e.g. Polarlight, Dawnlight etc.) formed in Greenock.

1895 - Adam, George & Gavin Hamilton of Brodick build their first steam vessel, the Glencloy.

1903 - Neil Munro begins writing the Para Handy stories until 1923.

1905 - Colin MacPhail goes into business. His vessels are named after Loch Fyne glens.

1921 - J & J Hay become known as J Hay & sons until 1956

1941-46 - 63 'Victualling Inshore Craft' (VICs) built for the Ministry of War Transport to J & J Hay's design for a 66 foot puffer, plus a further 39 80 foot VICs, all but one in England. 19 of these were acquired after the War to serve as puffers on the west coast of Scotland.

1945 - J & J Hay build their last puffer at Kirkintilloch, the Chindit.

1948 - G & G Hamilton and Colin MacPhail merge to form Hamilton & MacPhail

1953 - first diesel puffer built by Hamilton & MacPhail, the Glenshira.

1956 - J Hay & Sons revert to being know as J & J Hay.

1957 - last steam puffer built, the Stormlight (III). 

1958 - first vessel for the West Highland trade too big to use the Crinan Canal commissioned by Hamilton & MacPhail, the Glenshiel.

1959 - J & J Hay order their first diesel vessel, the Druid, and begin converting four of their puffers (Anzac, Lascar, Kaffir and Spartan) from steam to diesel.

1959-60 - first TV series of Para Handy with Duncan Macrae as PH and Roddy MacMillan as MacPhail. Don't know the puffer used.

1962 - Forth & Clyde Canal and Hays' yard at Kirkintilloch closed.

1963 - Ross & Marshall commission their first diesel vessel, the Raylight, and are taken over by Clyde Shipping Company. Hamilton & MacPhail and J & J Hay merge to form Hay Hamilton.

1965 & 66 - second and third TV series of PH. Roddy MacMillan as PH and using the Saxon. 

1968 - Western Ferries introduces the first ro-ro ferry on the west coast, to Islay, threatening the puffers' and coasters' trade. Ross & Marshall and Hay Hamilton merge to form Glenlight Shipping.

1969 - last steam puffer to trade (not counting the Auld Reekie or VIC32), possibly the Sitka (ex Skylight (III)).

1974 - first colour series of Para Handy using the Sitka.

1979 - last VIC (VIC65) retired by the Admiralty and scrapped at Inverkeithing.

1980 - Glenlight's last puffer (i.e. vessel built as steamer which could fit the Crinan Canal), the Spartan, retired. First cargo of timber lifted at Lochaline.

1981 - Glenlight begin to be subsidised by Government.

1992 - Glenlight pioneer 'tug and barge' concept with timber cargos

1994 - Glenlight cease trading with their conventional fleet and last puffer in operation (not counting the VIC32), the Eilean Eisdeal (ex Eldesa, ex VIC72) retires.

1994-95 - Fifth TV series of Para Handy with Gregor Fisher as PH and using the Auld Reekie.

1995 - Glenlight cease trading with 'tug and barge' due to complete withdrawal of Government subsidy.

The Roman at Brodick, early 1950s. Her name identifies her as a Hay vessel but they sold her to Alastair Kelso of Arran in 1935 and she spent the rest of her life until 1957 trading to that island.