Day 90: Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire to Drumchapel, Glasgow

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021 

4th April 2021: 35.65km walked today taking the total to 8685.53/8868km. 5% of 81 entries submitting 713.04km.

Today’s walk takes us through Helensburgh before we walk through Cardross, Dumbarton and Clydebank to reach Glasgow.

Route 23: St Andrews to Glasgow

We pass the Blackhill Plantation, planted to protect Helensburgh from the windy heathland behind, and head onto Kennedy Drive leading to Hill House, a Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece.

Hill House stands at the top of the hill on Upper Colquhoun Street in Helensburgh. Constructed between 1902-4 for Walter Blackie, a publisher, and his wife who were looking for a home near Glasgow and wanted something special. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, known as ‘Toshie’, was recommended to them; a rising star in Honeyman and Keppie. Charles, along with his wife Mary MacDonald, an artist, founded what is known today as ‘The Glasgow Style’ which strongly influenced the Viennese Art Nouveau movement. Plans were drawn up for the exterior and the interior, everything was designed by Charles and his wife. The Blackies lived there for 50 years and when the second owner put it on the market in 1972 it was purchased by the Royal Incorporation of Architects who converted a section of the house into apartments. Its significance being recognised, it was passed into the care of the National Trust for Scotland in 1982, now one of the most popular attractions in western Scotland.

Hill House is regarded as one of the finest private houses built in the 20th century but, since construction, has had issues with damp penetration; it has become a sandstone sponge. In the last few years a metal frame covered in chainmail mesh, nicknamed ‘The Box’, has encased the house. It is there to protect the structure from most of the rain and allow it to dry out so that conservation can take place. ‘The Box’ will eventually be removed after an anticipated 10-year period. We spend time enjoying Toshie’s masterpiece before heading down onto Colquhoun Street into Colquhoun Square. The Square was always intended to be a feature of Helensburgh and has evolved several times over the years; most recently in 2014 when the Square ceased being a thoroughfare for vehicular traffic. We see Helensburgh Parish Church which was completed in 1853 to replace a smaller building on the site dating from c1824; this happened despite the Disruption of 1843, which saw the split of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland.

As we arrive on the seafront the John Muir Way ends near the pier, a particularly important part of Helensburgh’s past; we’ll give you a brief town history. Ardencaple Castle was built in the area in the 1600s; after several owners and alterations it was purchased by Sir Ian Colquhoun of Luss in 1852. It was he who built the planned town and named it after his wife, Helen. He also organised a ferry link between the town and Greenock, allowing people to live in Helensburgh whilst earning a living on the south bank of the Clyde. Only one tower remains of the castle today having been mostly demolished in 1957.

Henry Bell, an engineer, who moved to Helensburgh in 1808, launched the PS Comet in 1812, which was to become the first successful passenger steamboat service in Europe. The boat brought people from Glasgow and Greenock to stay at his wife’s hotel (Bath Hotel) and he built the pier for landings, although it has had a few upgrades since that time. However, this was short-lived as he then altered the Comet to sail between Fort William and Oban. Unfortunately, the boat was shipwrecked by strong currents at Craignish Point, near Oban, in December 1820. To our right on the shore stands an obelisk to his memory erected in 1872. Nearby is also a memorial bust to John Logie Baird (1888-1946), one of the fathers of television, who was born and grew up in the town. The bust was sculpted by Donald Gilbert in 1943; Logie Baird is buried in Helensburgh Cemetery alongside his parents.

Ferries continued to come to Helensburgh until 2012, despite the arrival of the railway in 1858, which also added to its success as a holiday resort. The Waverley paddle steamer did still call here during her summer jaunts ‘doon the water’ until 2019 when she went in for repairs. The pier requires restoration itself before Helensburgh can see the paddle steamer return.

We leave Helensburgh behind on the A814, which does take a coastal route, but the train line runs near to the seafront, so we are forced to stick to a busy road. We pass through the small village of Colgrain to reach Cardross. Despite it only being a large village Cardross has a bit of history to it. Initially, the village sat at the mouth of the River Leven, called Kirkton of Cardross, further east along the coast in an area now occupied by Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. The ancient parish of Cardross started there but relocated to its present site in 1643 after the parish boundaries were redrawn. The settlement grew up around this new church taking the parish name as its own.

As we enter Cardross, we pass Ardmore Point, a privately-owned peninsula which is considered important for its unique rock formations and exposed sea cliffs. On the left, up the hill a little, we pass Geilston Garden. It was developed in c1797 as part of the 1770 Montgomery Act, which permitted the transfer of agricultural land not fit for ploughing. The Geils owned the property from 1805 and when Elizabeth Hendry’s father purchased it from them in 1925, she gave her friend, Margaret Bell, life rent of the house and in the 1950s they laid out the gardens together. Elizabeth bequeathed the house and garden to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) in 1991 and they came into NTS care in 1997. We also pass Geilston Hall which replaced the original structure paid for by the Geils family which was damaged by fire. Constructed in 1889-90 to a design by Honeyman and Keppie, it is rumoured to be an early design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but there is no evidence of this. The building is used for community activities today.

Continuing along the Main Street we spot the spire of the current Cardross Parish Church. This building started life in 1871-2 as a Free Church but was used as the Parish Church after 1941. We continue past Cardross Golf Course and reach the Old Parish Church which is no longer in use. The tower is the only surviving part of the original structure, initially settled on this site in 1643-4, then updated in 1827. The church was bombed during the war in the Cardross Blitz of December 1941, thought to be mistaken for a shipyard and oil storage facility. The churchyard is still in use today.

Before we leave Cardross there is another church story which you will have possibly heard about in the news the last few years, St Peter’s Seminary. Up behind the golf course is the Kilmahew Estate in Kilmahew Glen, hiding structures from the medieval to the modern age. The land was owned by the Napiers between the 13th century until the early 19th century; the remains of their castle can still be found in the woods on the estate. New owners saw the completion of Kilmahew House in the Victorian baronial style in 1868. After a fire in 1946 at St Peter’s College in Bearsden, the Catholic church required a new seminary. The church purchased the Kilmahew Estate moving into Kilmahew House in 1948. In the early 1950s Gillespie, Kidd and Coia were commissioned to design an extension that would wrap around the house to create a large seminary for 100 trainee priests. It was a concrete structure fitted out with wood and glass in the Brutalist style, featuring a granite altar in the chapel at its heart. It opened in 1966 at a time when the Catholic church was in decline in Scotland, so was abandoned after just 14 years of use. It became a drug rehabilitation centre from 1984-87 but, as it had maintenance issues from the outset, the site was empty by 1987. Despite all this, the building received numerous accolades and was declared a Category A listed building in 1992, one of only 42 post-war buildings at the time. Lying empty the buildings were badly vandalised; a fence was erected to protect the site but was unsuccessful. In 1995 Kilmahew House was destroyed by fire and demolished shortly after. The site has lain decaying since that time and, should you stumble upon it today, you would think it an abandoned multi-storey car park. There have been several attempts to restore or redevelop the site to no avail. However, in July 2020 the site was transferred at no cost to the charity Kilmahew Education Trust who aim to develop the site with education at its core. A fantastic photographic and written account of this site is found in ‘St Peter's, Cardross: Birth, Death and Renewal’ by Diane Watters if you’d like to read more about it.

We leave Cardross behind and continue along the A814, through the hamlet of Ardoch to re-join the shoreline on The Shore Circular Path on the outskirts of Dumbarton. We walk through Clydeview onto Levengrove Park, which sits on the mouth of the River Leven with good views to Dumbarton Rock. The area was once part of the old Levengrove Estate owned by the Dixon family, who were local merchants. The house was demolished in 1880 after the land was split up and sold in 1867 for development. A couple of local shipbuilders purchased a section of the land and developed a public park for the people which opened in 1885, after which they gifted the park back to the local council.

This is the land which was originally known as Kirton of Cardross and the Ferrylands where, before Dumbarton Bridge was completed in 1768, the ferry crossed the Leven. As we wander past the War Memorial and through the park, we reach the original Cardross Church ruins, known as St Serf’s. As mentioned previously, it was based here until moved along the shore to the current village of Cardross. We find the remains of the church in an attractive, shady spot amongst the trees. Robert the Bruce saw out his life in a manor house somewhere along the western confluence of the River Leven, its location in Pillanflatt is no longer known and the subject of current research. This was his local parish church, and it is said that after he died in 1329, his internal organs were buried on this site (a plaque on the site attests to this). It was common practice to remove internal organs and bury them locally when a body was to be transported for burial; Robert’s body was transported to Dunfermline Abbey. His heart, as already mentioned when we were at Melrose Abbey, was buried there after a mission failed to bury his heart in Jerusalem.

We pass the Kilmahew Fountain, donated by the Burns of Kilmahew House in 1902, then Shear’s Well, once an important water source for Dumbarton; the pump is still in place after its installation in the early 1900s. We leave the park to walk along the riverside then cross Dumbarton Bridge. The piers are the original ones from 1768, but the surface has undergone widening and reconstruction in the centuries since. The lamp posts on the bridge are reconstructions of the original ones that were put in place in the 1930s.

We are now in the centre of Dumbarton, its name coming from Scottish Gaelic meaning ‘the fort of the Britons’. Settlement of this location goes back to at least the Iron Age and there was also a strategically important Roman settlement called Alclud (Rock of the Clyde) based here. The fortresses were built on Dumbarton Rock, a volcanic plug, on the edge of the Clyde. Dumbarton has a complex history spanning 1,500 years. It was part of the kingdom of Strathclyde with Welsh connections between the 5th-11th centuries. During this period, the wizard Merlin was said to have stayed here. After the Vikings invaded and destroyed the fortress in 870AD historical records fell silent until the 13th century, when there is mention of a royal castle on the rock.

Alexander II granted Dumbarton Royal Burgh status in 1222 making mention of a new castle. From the 18th-19th century, the town was known for its glassmaking, which was then taken over by the shipbuilding well into the 20th century, the last shipyard closing in 1963. Many ships were built here including the famous Cutty Sark, which can be seen in dry dock in Greenwich, London. The Scottish Maritime Museum is based here and features the world’s first ship-testing tank telling the story of its owners, shipbuilders William Denny and Brothers. The town was a target of heavy bombing due to their shipyards during World War 2, so they planted decoy lights on the hills to divert attention with some success.

A variety of other industries have since moved in and Dumbarton is also a commuter town for Glasgow workers. Famous connections? Scottish poet Robert Burns was made a free man of Dumbarton. David Byrne, award-winning musician and founding member of the band ‘Talking Heads’ was born here, as was James Cosmo, actor of ‘Game of Thrones’ fame, and Jackie Stewart, racing driver. The family owned a garage in the east of the town until it was taken over by Jackie’s friend. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle became the Earl and Countess of Dumbarton when they wed in May 2018.

As we walk to Dumbarton Rock, we pass through the town centre’s streets on to Castle Road, taking us past Dumbarton Football Club’s grounds to the rock itself. From the outset, the 13th-century castle was a royal fortress and it saw many sieges, battles, and squabbles over the centuries. After Mary Queen of Scots’ reign, it didn't enjoy the status it once had and became a garrison fortress. It was captured by Cromwell in 1652 and after the 1715 Jacobite Uprising, General George Wade turned the castle into a Georgian military fort; the cannon batteries we see dotted about the rock are of his making. After this period, it became a state prison, then a tourist attraction. It ceased any military function at the turn of the 20th century but was used as an anti-aircraft gun battery during the Second World War. As a result, it was bombed in 1941, the first enemy attack upon its walls in 3 centuries. Not much survives of the medieval castle and, as we wander the large site today, now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, most of what we see is from the 18th-century conversion into a military fort. It has great views over the eastern bank of the River Leven onto the Clyde. There is a lot of history here if you want to read more detail, it's worth a ‘surf’.

Leaving the castle, we make our way back onto the Glasgow Road (A814 still) which joins the A82 pushing on through Milton into Bowling. Along this stretch, you can pick up the Overtoun House Circular Path which takes you up the hills above Dumbarton to Overtoun House. This mansion was built in Scots Baronial style between 1859-1862 for a wealthy Glasgow chemical manufacturer. During World War 2 it was used as a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers and became a maternity hospital from 1947 until 1970. After 1975 it was used by several religious groups and is still a Christian Centre for Hope and Healing today; you can pop in for a coffee on your walk through. The bridge is linked with paranormal occurrences though. Since the 1960s over 300 dogs have jumped off the bridge leading to over 50 deaths. Owners say their dogs take a sudden ‘turn’ and in a fit of energy jump over the parapet within seconds. The house is haunted by the White Lady of Overtoun and locals believe it is her who is enticing the dogs to jump. The more sensible belief is they are attracted by the strong scent of other mammals living within the vicinity of the bridge. Regardless, if you walk with your doggie in this area, do keep it on a leash! Such was the interest in the phenomenon that it became the subject of a channel five documentary in late 2006. The House also featured in the film ‘Cloud Atlas’ (2012).

As we leave the A82 for the Dumbarton Road taking us into Bowling, we pass a castle on the shoreline; you can't see it there. The remains of a 14th-century courtyard castle stand on a rocky cliff, once property of the Barony of Colquhoun. It was partially ruined by the 18th century when it was used as a quarry for Bowling Quay. However, the fortified house remains; it was extended in the 19th century but now stands empty. It is interesting to note that in 1899 the castle was sold to Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s future brother-in-law and Mackintosh was commissioned to redesign some of the interior. It was the work he did here that led to his commission to design Hill House. The bookcase, designed for one of the rooms, is now part of the National Museum of Scotland collection. In the castle courtyard grounds is also an obelisk erected in memory of Henry Bell, of Helensburgh ‘Comet’ fame, in 1839. The house has been unoccupied for a while because Esso purchased the whole site in the 1920s to build an oil terminal. The terminal was decommissioned in the 1990s, but the castle, a listed building, is still being cared for by Esso; unfortunately, it is on an inaccessible site with 24-hour surveillance.

Bowling is the western gateway and terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which opened in 1790 and runs across central Scotland; we’ve already walked a section of it near the Antonine Wall. With the canals came increased shipbuilding and repairs in the area, which continued until 1979 when the last yard announced its closure. Though a great success at the start, the canal suffered from the inability to cope with the increasingly larger seagoing vessels, then the arrival of the railways led to further decline. It was the birthplace of boats known as the Clyde ‘puffer’ which were small enough to negotiate the Crinan Canal. The ‘Vital Spark’ is one of 5 of these types of boats still in existence, though she is permanently moored at Inveraray. By the 1930s the canal was dormant, and the network was eventually closed in the 1960s. In 2000 the Forth & Clyde and the Union Canals saw regeneration thanks to partial funding by the National Lottery. The Falkirk Wheel was built to lift boats from the Forth & Clyde Canal over to the Union Canal, reconnecting them after the locks had been filled in some years ago. As a result, in 2008 the Bowling Basin also saw regeneration.

As we walk towards the canal, we see the Kilpatrick Braes behind the village and pass a ship graveyard used from the mid-20th century. Several wrecks have been removed but a few remain, the most famous being the ‘Selby River’, an old coaster. We join the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals Walk at the basin; we will follow the towpath from here into the centre of Glasgow.

We walk along the leafy towpath into Old Kilpatrick, where the western end of the Antonine Wall is located at the western extremity of the Roman Empire in Britain. When the canal was being built at the end of the 18th-century Roman archaeology was found in the Gavinburn area, and further digs in the early 20th century found more remains. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the village saw an influx of people with the growth of the spinning and weaving industry. It is also thought to be a possible birthplace of Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. Continuing, we walk beside The Saltings Nature Reserve, designated in 2009, sitting in the shadow of the Erskine Bridge. The area’s natural habitat was severely damaged by infill of waste materials from the construction of the bridge in the late 1960s. Nature did a good job at recolonising and it is now a protected area of marshy meadow and mixed woodland. Before the Erskine Bridge was opened in 1971 the East Ferry of Erskine crossed here. Initially, a ferry was not needed as the Clyde was shallow enough to ford, but after dredging to allow boats to sail upriver to Glasgow a ferry was then required.

We continue past the Dalmuir bonded warehouses to the drop lock at Dumbarton Road in Dalmuir. The drop lock was the only one of its kind in the UK when it was opened in 2001 to allow for the revival of the canal; previously a swing bridge was in operation from 1915. Dalmuir sits between Old Kilpatrick to the west and Clydebank to the east, once a stand-alone village. In the 18th century this was arable land, then bought by mill owners and expansion began. Dalmuir became part of Clydebank in 1906 and during World War 2 the area was damaged in the Clydebank Blitz of 1941.

From the lock, we pass through the built-up area of Clydebank, to reach the Clydebank Shopping Centre. The bridge over the canal here is called the Swan Canopy Bridge, inspired by the shape of swans taking flight and designed by Neil MacLean in 2008. Clydebank is part of the conurbation of Greater Glasgow today, one of 34 local areas starting in the west at Bowling. Historically, Clydebank was in the boundaries of the ancient Kingdom of Strathclyde. Until 1870 the area was known as Barns o’Clyde, a rural and agricultural land, but with the expansion of trade and industry within Glasgow land was required, especially by the water, for additional shipping quays. The Clyde Navigation Trustees compulsorily purchased an existing shipyard in Govan, forcing the owner J & G Thomson to open a shipyard here in 1871. The area was well served by the canal and the Dumbarton Road for the transport of materials and movement of workers, even more so after the arrival of the railway to the shipyard in 1882.

Other industries soon followed. Singer Manufacturing Company built a sewing machine factory here in 1882. Clydebank became an official town in 1886 after the residents petitioned for a ‘police burgh’ due to the size of the population. In 1899 the shipyard became part of John Brown’s Shipyard, which changed hands several times throughout its lifespan, but is the most famous of all the Clyde shipbuilders. It constructed 20 Cunard liners including the Queen Mary (1934 - now a hotel and attraction in Long Beach, California), Queen Elizabeth (1938 - scrapped in the 1970s after a fire) and the QE2 (1967 - now docked as hotel and attraction in Dubai). As I've already mentioned, it was badly bombed in the Clydebank Blitz of March 1941 when various sites were targeted. The shipyard, Singer factory and a naval oil depot at Dalnottar were all severely damaged, killing 528 people and seriously injuring many others.

John Brown’s Shipyard finally closed in 2002, but its cantilever crane lives on. Named the Titan Crane, it’s 150ft structure has towered over the Clyde since 1907 and opened as a visitor attraction in 2007, winning awards and providing a feature at night with its illumination. Singer remained in operation until 1980, its site is now occupied by Clydebank College Campus and Clydebank Business Park. High unemployment followed the closures of the shipyard and the Singer factory and Clydebank became one of Scotland’s first Enterprise Zones to revive urban areas experiencing decline due to loss of industry; some areas are still undergoing regeneration at the quayside. Duncan Bannatyne, entrepreneur, philanthropist and author, was born here as was the band ’Wet Wet Wet’ in 1982.

From the Clydebank Shopping Centre, which also sits on part of the Singer factory site, we continue along the towpath through an urban area, passing Clydebank Rugby Club, then through the areas of Linnvale and Whitecrook. Linnvale was a housing area before World War 2 began and was also destroyed during the Blitz, to be rebuilt in the late 1940s. From here we cross the boundary line into the City of Glasgow and the Old Drumchapel area.

In the 19th century, the Drumchapel area was part of New Kilpatrick, the land owned by Cowdenhill Estate. The name comes from 2 grassy ridges nearby called ‘drums’. In the 15th century, a chapel was located on one of them resulting in the name Drumchapel. In the late 19th century mines were sunk and, following their closure, house building was encouraged by the owners. In 1892 semi-detached stone villas were built quickly followed by other amenities. In the 1950s the area saw expansion; the old and new areas have maintained their distinction, south of the line being called Old Drumchapel.

As we walk through this section, we pass through Boghouse area where there are 4 locks along the canal before passing under Great Western Road and continuing through High Knightswood.