To Oban via Kingshouse

I came across on the internet the other day the oldest picture of Oban I've ever seen. It's an illustration from a book published in 1807 called Travels in Scotland by an Unusual Route by the Rev. James Hall:-

You can clearly see Dunollie Castle and Maiden Island and I think the picture must be taken from roughly where Argyll Square is today.

Hall gives an interesting insight into travel on horseback in the Highlands of Scotland in the first decade of the 19th century and it's worth reproducing his account of his journey to Oban from Fort William. Instead of following the present day A82 road down the east coast of Loch Linnhe to the Ballachulish Bridge (that road hadn't built in 1807, never mind the bridge), Hall followed the military road south east inland to the head of Loch Leven to the Kingshouse Hotel near the head of Glen Coe.

Hall writes "Finding the fort [at Fort William] neither so regular, nor so extensive as Fort George, nor seemingly of any use, except as barracks for soldiers, I bent my course towards Inverary. After a tedious and wearisome journey of more than twenty miles, the greater part of which lay over two mountains, I reached at length, exhausted and in a melancholy mood, the inn called the King's House, situated on the side of a rapid river, issuing out of the dreary and dreadful pass of Glencoe. Here, provisions were as scarce and poor as at the general's hut on Lochness; [Hall is referring here to an inn he had stayed at so called because General Wade of military road fame is supposed to have had it as his base. On his stay, Hall was appalled to find he was eating food prepared by a maid suffering from "the itch".] With the important difference, that, if there was any cause of disgust, as there probably was, I fortunately did not perceive it. It is a miserable and dirty hut; though the landlord has this, with some pasture land, rent free, besides 10l. per annum from government.

"However, I slept soundly, and early in the morning, well refreshed, and in good spirits, proceeded through Glencoe, which is ten miles in length, and whose horrors have often been described, to a small but not uncomfortable inn at the ferry of Ballyhulish. Here, an isolated hill, beautifully rising in a conical form, and verdant to the top, with the waters of Loch Lynn [Loch Linnhe], which on one side wash its base, form a pleasing contrast with the gloomy precipices of Glencoe, and the savage rudeness of the mountains with which it is environed.

"By Appin, Aird, Ardnamurknage, Dunstaffnage, and Dunolly, gentlemen's seats distinguished; some of them by the rude magnificence and frowning defiance of former times; and others, by the elegance and convenience of modern improvement, I arrived at Oban. This flourishing village is situated on the bay of Oban in the sound of Mull, which bay is of a semicircular form, from twelve to fourteen fathoms [20-25 metres] deep, and large enough to contain above five hundred vessels. It has every where good anchorage, and is defended from the fury of the winds by the island of Mull and Kerrera.

The village is rapidly extending itself round the edges of the bay. The houses and gardens, rising above one another on the acclivities that bound the bay, exhibit a picturesque and pleasing appearance. When the custom house, in 1766, was transferred from Fort William to Oban, it consisted only of three or four houses or huts. At present, its population amounts to near seven hundred souls. It has several flourishing manufactures; twenty sloops employed in the fishing and coasting trade; and a ship of three hundred tons in the Baltic trade: such are the effects of natural advantages seized and improved by wise economy.

"An English traveller, equally patriotic and intelligent, and particularly conversant with naval affairs, the late Mr T Newte of Tiverton, recommends Oban, I think by considerations that could not but have weight if they were attended to, as one of the happiest situations in Great Britain for the erection of a royal dock yard and arsenal. Having staid all night at Oban, where I met with some very well informed people, I pursued my route to Bunawe, on the lake of that name, where the Furness company have a house and place for making charcoal; and in the neighbourhood of this place an iron work. Here I rested, and passed the night in a small inn, or alehouse, that formed a perfect contrast with the King's House; a blessing for which travellers are indebted no doubt to the Furness company."

You can read the rest of Hall's account of his travels through Scotland via Google Books.

I don't know about the inn at Bonawe (as it's spelt nowadays) but the Kingshouse Hotel is still in business, catering more nowadays to weary climbers and skiers than travellers.

Picture credit the44mantis

I don't know whether it still gets £10 a year from the government and whether it's still a "miserable and dirty hut", you can judge for yourself from the reviews on Tripadvisor.com.

Stromeferry - Part 3

Picking up the story from Part 2, many and vocal had been the pledges in support of the proposed railway from Dingwall to the west coast at Kyle of Lochalsh but when it came to calling in these pledges in 1865, the actual cash was a bit slower being forthcoming. Also, one of the landowners along the route, Sir William MacKenzie of Coul (near Contin), refused to allow the railway to pass through his estate necessitating expensive deviations from the planned route.

On way or another, the directors had to cut their cloth somewhat and soon realised they couldn't afford to build the railway all the way to Kyle. Instead the terminus would have to be at Attadale near the head of Loch Carron. Although Attadale was the nearest point on the west coast, it was about 16 miles from the shipping lanes to the south from Portree on Skye and Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides: it was this trade (especially cargo - fish and livestock from the islands) which the railway was banking on intercepting and Kyle would have been a much better place to siphon it off at than Attadale.

Despite this disappointment, work on the railway began in September 1868 but as a result of persuasion by director Sir John Fowler - the railway engineer who would later become responsible for the Forth Bridge - it was soon decided to extend it further down Loch Carron to Stromeferry. The railway was opened to passengers on 19th August 1870. The picture below shows the terminus at Stromeferry viewed from the north side of Loch Carron. From left to right on the far side of the loch are the engine shed, station and pier (wuith steamer alongside), the stationmaster's house, railwaymen's cottages and the hotel. The white building in the foreground is the inn at North Strome on the north side of the ferry across the loch.

The Dingwall & Skye Railway Company (DSR) which had built the line would not operate the trains over it, however. These would be run by the Highland Railway Company (HR) which owned most of the other lines radiating from Inverness under a deal whereby the HR paid the DSR 2 shillings (10p) per train-mile over the line to Stromeferry for up to two runs each way per day and 1 shilling and 10 pence (about 9p) per train-mile for additional runs.  From this would be deducted £200 per year for the DSR's use of the HR's station at Dingwall.

 The building on the right above is the hotel

Another concern to the DSR was steamer connections. The whole point of the line, really, was to capture traffic to the islands of Skye and the Outer Hebrides beyond the terminus of the railway but, perhaps not surprisingly, the principal shipping company in the north west, David Hutcheson & Co (the forerunner to MacBrayne's), declined to divert their steamers to Stromeferry. Hence the DSR was obliged to buy two steamers of their own, the Oscar and the Jura, to sail respectively to Portree (daily ex. Sunday) and Stornoway (twice a week).

The pier with the station on the left. The inn at North Strome visible on the right

The initial timetable was two return trains a day between Inverness and Stromeferry. The down trains (from Inverness) departed at 9.15am and 3.10pm and arrived at Stromeferry at 1.15pm and 7.15pm respectively. The steamers sailed in connection with the morning train arriving at Portree (via Kyleakin and Broadford) at 8.00pm and Stornoway at 10.00pm. The single fare between Inverness and Stromeferry was 4 shillings and 5 pence (22p) or 8 shillings and 10 pence (44p) First Class. This was considerably cheaper than the 6 shilling fare on the mail coach as well as being infinitely quicker and more comfortable.

The station viewed from the branch line to the pier

In the years following the opening of the line in 1870, the steamer services were scaled back with sailings to Stornoway being abandoned: instead passengers would connect at Portree with Hutchesons' steamers to Stornoway. In 1877, the Highland Railway Co. took over the steamer operations but in 1880 Hutchesons' - now trading as MacBrayne's following the retirement of the Hutcheson brothers leaving their junior partner David MacBrayne to carry on alone - relented and agreed to take over the run from Stromeferry to Portree with calls at Plockton, Broadford and Raasay. Also in 1880, the HR merged with the DSR meaning in practice that the former company now owned the railway itself as well running the trains over it.

The following year, 1881, MacBrayne's took over the mail run from Stornoway to Ullapool (which involved passengers making a 5 hour coach journey to connect with the evening train to Inverness at Garve) but in 1885 the mainland terminus of that service moved to Stromeferry as well. 

Stromeferry from the east with a steamer at the pier

The late 1880s, then, were the high water mark of Stromeferry's fortunes as a railway terminus, the only one on the west coast of Scotland north of Oban (to where a railway had opened in 1880). By now, there were three trains a day and daily steamers to Portree and Stornoway connecting with the noon train from Inverness. But it would be all change for Stromeferry in the 1890s as proposals for more railways to the north west were tabled.

                            MacBrayne's Stromeferry to Stornoway steamer SS Lovedale seen here at Lochmaddy

To be continued ...

Tom Gilfillan

My previous post featured a travel poster with artwork by Tom Gilfillan. I'm a huge fan of these 1930s railway travel posters and if I had the money and the wall space, my walls would be covered with them.

I've already got two up (both originals which I bought off eBay) - one advertising the Ardrishaig Mail with artwork by Norman Wilkinson and the other the Fast Route to Skye via Armadale by Alasdair Macfarlane. Neither of these are railway posters, strictly speaking, but they recall an era when the railway was the mode of travel par excellence and other modes of public transport such as steamers and buses were designed to dovetail in round the railway.

Sorry about the poor photography catching the reflections in the glass but the ship on the left is MacBrayne's SS Saint Columba which served the Ardrishaig Mail service from Gourock to Ardrishaig from 1936 to 1958 while the ship on the right is MV Loch Seaforth which was the Stornoway mail steamer from Mallaig and Kyle from 1947 to 1972.

I've also got two Tom Gilfillan postcards in clip frames by my desk:-

Now I'm not much of an art connoisseur but these are my sort of art - to me, the puffy white clouds convey limpid, languid long hot summer's days.

The first picture is Iona and the second is Staffa. The ship in both cases is MacBrayne's MV Lochfyne of 1931. From 1931 to 1935, she took the cruise from Oban round Mull via Tobermory to Iona and Staffa, the route which would later become more closely associated with the SS King George V.

Note that in the second picture the Lochfyne has a grey hull. This is because, in 1928, MacBrayne's was bought from the MacBrayne family by Coast Lines - the company which dominated coastal shipping on the Irish Sea at the time - with a 50% investment from the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company. The new management attempted what would now be called a "re-branding" exercise painting the ships' hulls grey but it didn't last and they were soon back to their traditional black after a few years.

For those interested in minutiae, note how the poster in the last post (which also shows the Lochfyne with a grey hull) gives the company as "David MacBrayne (1928) Ltd". This was the name of the new company incorporated by Coast Lines and the LMSR after the takeover. The "(1928)" was dropped after a few years once the old company owned by the MacBrayne family had been formally wound up.

I'll get back to Stromeferry in the next post (unless something else catches my eye meantime!).

Nomination!

I'm feeling very chuffed to have been nominated for the Scotblogs Awards 2010. Whoever it was who nominated me (and, although it's allowed, it wasn't me), thanks very much. As there are 142 nominations, I don't suppose I'm likely to win but the very fact of being nominated is inspiration to keep writing new entries - I've been a bit remiss lately due to having been away from home over the Christmas and New Year period.

Unfortunately, my favourite Scottish blog - Life at the End of the Road by Paul Camilli who writes about his life working as a ferryman and crofter on the island of Raasay hasn't been nominated (mysteriously, as I gather Paul has a huge following, and I only discovered the awards after nominations had closed or else I would have nominated him) so instead my vote has gone to ClydeSights by John Newth. John also works on a car ferry, this time the Western Ferries between Gourock and Hunter's Quay, and takes his camera to work with him and writes about the various ships which pass his ferry on their way up and down the Clyde.

And apropos of nothing but purely to get a gratuitous picture into this post, here's an image of an early 30s MacBrayne's poster with artwork by Tom Gilfillan which I saw advertised on eBay the other day:-

Stromeferry - Part 2

Picking up the story from Stromeferry - Part 1 , in the early 1860s, railways were snaking their way across the north of Scotland.

In 1858, Inverness was connected by rail to Edinburgh and Glasgow (linked to London since 1849) albeit by a circuitous route via Aberdeen. In 1863, a more direct route via the Drumochter Pass was opened by which time railways also now extended north from Inverness up the east coast as far as Invergordon. But so far there was no railway to the west coast of Scotland north of the Firth of Clyde.

That began to change in 1865 when an Act of Parliament was passed incorporating the Dingwall and Skye Railway Company with power to build a line from the existing railway up the east coast at Dingwall to what is now the village of Kyle of Lochalsh. The promoters of the new railway were mainly influential landowners along the route and in Skye and the Outer Hebrides. In a speech to a meeting in 1864 appealing for subscriptions, the chairman, MacLeod of Dunvegan on Skye, made a telling point about travel in the north west Highlands:-

"You are all aware of the very little communication which exists betwixt the west coast and the town of Inverness. This town is undoubtedly the county town, but, at present, I call Glasgow my county town because I go there for everything I want by means of the steamers"

In other words, it was as easy to get from Dunvegan to Glasgow by MacBrayne's steamer (a distance of 150 miles as the crow flies which took the steam ship more a little over 24 hours) as it was to get to Inverness half the distance away overland.

One of the most graphic accounts of journeying from Inverness to Skye in the early 1860s before the railway is given by Alexander Smith in his book A Summer in Skye. He first had to catch a coach at 4.00am for the two hour drive to Dingwall. His record of this experience is worth repeating in full.

"There is nothing so delightful as travelling on a stage coach, when you start in good condition, and at a reasonable hour. ... On the other hand, there is nothing more horrible than starting at four A.M., half-awake, breakfastless, the chill of the morning playing on your face as the dewy machine spins along. Your eyes close in spite of every effort, your blood thick with sleep, your brain stuffed with dreams; you wake and sleep, and wake again; and the Vale of Tempe itself, with a Grecian sunrise burning into day ahead, could not rouse you into interest, or blunt the keen edge of your misery. I recollect nothing of this portion of our journey save its disagreeableness; and alit at Dingwall, cold, wretched, and stiff, with a cataract of needles and pins pouring down my right leg, and making locomotion anything but a pleasant matter.

Finding that all space on the mail coach from Dingwall to Skye had been booked by a visiting aristocrat for his servants, Smith was forced to hire a dog-cart (open horse drawn carriage) and driver. The horse supplied was not a good one, however, and to add to his misery, it started to pour with rain half an hour from Dingwall. At the first staging post (place to change horses), probably Achnasheen although he doesn't name the place, Smith was appalled to discover that travellers passing earlier had taken the only horse the inn possessed. Forced to stick with the same horse, and still raining, Smith decided walking directly across a stretch of moor and letting the carriage catch up with him round by the road would be preferable.

He reached Lochcarron in the late afternoon where the landlord of the "primeval inn" procured him a small sailing boat and crew. Dark and with the weather now alternating between calm and squalls, the crew gave up hope of reaching Skye and, past midnight and soaked to the skin, they put in at Plockton where he had to wake the inn-keeper. The boatmen promised to take Smith on to Skye the next morning but despite having been paid the full fare and money for accommodation in Plockton, they did not appear the following day. Fortunately, it emerged that the minister of Plockton was an old university friend of Smith's and he lent him his dog-cart to get to the ferry at Kyle, a drive of less than two hours.

The whole journey had taken more than 24 hours. Although MacLeod of Dunvegan doubtless made sure of a place on the mail coach if travelling to Inverness (about 12 hours from Kyle), it's easy to understand why he found it just as convenient to go to Glasgow by steamer (24 hours, overnighting in a cabin on board) and why he was vocal for a railway from Kyle to Inverness which would cover the distance in about 4.5 hours!

To be continued ...

Renfrew - the airport that disappeared

A little bit off my normal topic (although it is transport in the west of Scotland), but I've always been fascinated by Renfrew Airport - Glasgow's original airport before the present airport at Abbotsinch, a mile and a half to the west, opened in 1966.

Although abandoned, the terminal building and control tower remained standing for many years and I remember seeing it driving past on the M8 motorway (which was built almost along the line of the main runway) in the 1970s. It was finally demolished in 1978, I believe, and the inevitable Tesco now stands on the site. Most of the rest of the airport has been built over by houses.


Flying at what was originally known as Moorpark Aerodrome is believed to have begun as early as 1912 but the site was requisitioned during World War 1 to form an airfield for the testing of aircraft built at nearby factories. Military flying activities were moved to Abbotsinch (the site of the present Glasgow Airport) in 1933 whereupon Renfrew developed as Glasgow's civilian airport. I believe the first scheduled service was to Campbeltown that year.


Note - if you click the following pictures, they should link to the websites where I found them and where there are in most cases further pictures and extra information. Due credit to the respective photographers and thanks for their info.

The first picture below shows a row of Scottish Airways De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapides outside the original terminal building in the 1930s.


There was military activity at Renfrew again during WW2 but this ceased after the war and, by 1948, it was the UK's third busiest airport and a new terminal building was required. This striking futuristic building designed by Scottish architect, Sir William Kininmonth, with its distinctive parabolic arch, opened in 1954:-





In the picture below of the airport viewed from the west looking east, the terminal building is at the top left:-


[EDIT - Here's a link to a late 1950's/early 1960s large scale OS map showing the 1954 terminal: click here.] 

Despite its arresting architecture, Kininmonth's building of 1954 was destined to be Glasgow's air terminal for only 12 years. Air traffic grew massively in the late 50s/early 60s but it was impossible to expand Renfrew as the site was constrained by surrounding developments. Hence Glasgow Airport was moved to Abbotsinch which had been a Fleet Air Arm station (HMS Sanderling) since 1943 but closed in 1963. Apparently the 1954 terminal had been built at Renfrew with the intention of eventually demolishing it and rebuilding it at Abbotsinch. But traffic had grown beyond all expectations so a new terminal was required there and Kininmonth's masterpiece was redundant: the last flight departed on 1 May 1966 with operations beginning at Abbotsinch the following morning.

Renfrew Airport was gradually built over, the M8 motorway along the main runway in 1968. But as the terminal building and control tower were not demolished until 1978, they stood empty for as many years as they had been in use. Here are some pictures in the abandoned/demolition phase.


The picture above shows the terminal from the airside - the concrete on the right is the apron where the planes used to park. In the picture below, you can see the famous parabolic arch lying forlornly on the ground:-

Nowadays, there nothing left to see of the airport at all except that, even into the era of Google Earth, there was a bit of concrete left just east of the High School which was once the north end of the apron:-

But to judge by current GE imagery (see above) even that seems to have gone now and been dug up and laid down to grass (and the trees cut down apparently). One of the few reminders of the airport is that there was once a nearby housing estate where the streets were named after airliners of the time but as a result of later re-development, Viscount Avenue seems to be the only survivor of these now.

And finally, I'll leave you with a really extraordinary picture. Rangers fans greeting their team's return to Renfrew in 1962. But not just thronging the airport viewing terrace (remember them?) - running out over the tarmac to the plane!

And finally finally (!), here's the nearest we'll ever get nowadays to a pilot's eye view of Renfrew Airport. The M8 looking west about a third of the way down the old runway 08, about directly opposite the terminal building (90 degrees over your right shoulder) courtesy of Google Maps street view:-

West Tarbert Pier - Part 2

To recap, in the late 60s West Tarbert Pier's days semed to be numbered by the announcement in February 1968 of a ro-ro car ferry service to be operated by MacBrayne's from a new pier at Escart Bay a mile down the loch. But the outlook was altered somewhat by the commencement on 6 April 1968 of Western Ferries' new service from Kennacraig and MacBrayne's becoming fully nationalised under the umbrella of the Scottish Transport Group in July 1969: the STG also included the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (CSP) which operated the ferries on the Clyde.

In October 1969, the Government perfomed a volte face. Citing the changed circumstances of the amalgamation of MacBrayne's into the STG, the Escart Bay scheme was abandoned. Instead, MacBrayne's would continue to operate from WTP with a spare CSP hoist-loading car ferry. The ro-ro ferry which MacBrayne's had ordered for the new Islay service (and which was nearing completion) would be used elsewhere on the MacBrayne's/CSP network.

The 1939 steamer MV Lochiel sailed for Islay from WTP for the last time on 17 January 1970 and was replaced the following day by the CSP's first ever car ferry, the MV Arran of 1954.

Above - the Arran at WTP. Picture by kind permission of "hebrides"

In abandoning the Escart Bay scheme, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Government was toying with the idea of handing responsibility for the Islay services over to Western Ferries but wasn't quite able to take the plunge. As well as concerns about whether WF - whose services were rather more geared to freight traffic - could be trusted to have the long term staying power to provide a lifeline ferry service, there was no doubt an element of ideological hostility from a Labour (socialist) government to a private company intruding on the state's virtual monopoly over transport.

In November 1971, a new Conservative (centre right) government changed tack again and announced that MacBrayne's subsidy for serving Islay was to be withdrawn from March 1972. Instead, WF would be subsidised to extend their operations to Colonsay. Jura would now be served solely by WF's small vehicle ferry across the Sound of Islay from Port Askaig to Feolin which had begun in 1969: separate arrangements would be made for Gigha.

Above - WF's ferry from 1969 to 1976, the MV Sound of Jura at Kennacraig

What the government hadn't reckoned on, though, was the strength of local opposition to this move, particularly from Port Ellen which would be left without a ferry as WF would be sailing only to Port Askaig. After much debate, the government changed tack again and WTP was reprieved once more. In early 1973 - by which time, incidentally, MacBrayne's and the CSP had merged to form Caledonian MacBrayne (Calmac) - the Arran was converted to ro-ro and from April that year commenced sailing from WTP thrice daily but only to Port Ellen. Colonsay had been served from Oban since the beginning of 1973 as it still is to this day.

(Here I have to admit I'm not sure how Gigha was served in 1973 and early 1974 because calls there - once a day, three days a week - en route to Port Ellen don't appear in Calmac timetables again till summer 1974.)

It was in connection with the Arran commencing service as a stern loading ro-ro ferry in April 1973 that WTP was extended by the addition of the leg out into the loch perpendicular to the coast as seen in the Google Earth image below:-

The Arran now berthed along this new leg, bow-out, and lowered her stern ramp onto the old pier which had been modified by the addition of a concrete ramp being let into it: the tidal range in West Loch Tarbert is small so expensive adjustable shore ramp (linkspan) was not necessary and this is principally why WTP survived into the car ferry era. The Google Earth image shows how shallow the loch is at WTP and how little room for manouevre there is: before the leg was built, the ships had to be warped round with ropes (a sort of maritime equivalent of a three point turn) to point them outward for the return journey to Islay.

In August 1974, Calmac took delivery of a new and faster ship to operate the Islay services. Named Pioneer in memory of the paddle steamer which had served Islay from 1905 to 1940, she was deliberately designed with a shallow draught to be able to operate from WTP.

Above - the Pioneer heading up West Loch Tarbert on the front cover of a booklet published by Calmac to celebrate her retirement in 2003 (Copies still available via the Calmac website at £7.45 inc. p+p.)

As the 1970s progressed, it became clear there wasn't enough trade to support the sailings of both WF's and Calmac's ferries. Inevitably it was the smaller private company which suffered: in August 1976, they were forced to sell the Sound of Jura, the larger ship (pictured above) they had ordered in 1969 in the first flush of success, and revert to using their smaller original ship, the Sound of Islay. Then, in what could be viewed as a predatory move, Calmac bought WF's pier down the loch at Kennacraig in late 1977. The Pioneer gave the last sailing to Islay from WTP on 25 June 1978, thus closing more than 150 years of history.

The picture below (from John Newth's collection and used here with his kind permission) shows WF's Sound of Islay (left) and Calmac's Pioneer (right) together at Kennacraig. The expression "cuckoo in the nest" comes to mind:-

The deeper waters and greater room to manouevre at Kennacraig allowed Calmac at last to deploy to Islay the larger ship that had been ordered away back in 1968 in connection with the still-born Escart Bay scheme - the MV Iona - from February 1979. WF eventually gave up their Islay service in September 1981 whereupon Calmac resumed sailing to Port Askaig as well as Port Ellen - it was a saga of a private operator being slowly strangled to death by a state monopoly which just couldn't happen nowadays. (Comparisons of Laker against British Airways in the 1970s come to mind as well.)

West Tarbert Pier survived the departure of scheduled sailings to Islay in 1978 to become a busy fishing pier today run by Argyll and Bute Council. I'll conclude with some recent photographs by, respectively, Kevin McGroarty, "hebrides" and John Newth and all used here with their kind permission:-

Finally, I should record my own memory of WTP, the last time I was there. Easter 1975, when I was 11. It was the first time I ever boarded a Calmac ferry, the 06.30 departure of the Pioneer to Port Ellen. We'd stayed on the pier in our caravan overnight - great fun when you're 11 and a budding ferry enthusiast! This is your correspondent later that day.