Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

This evening my theme is Scotland’s Tower Houses including a selection of illustrative images.

Tower Houses date from the 14t to 15th centuries and evolved out of earlier timber structures. Although built to give an impression of defence, the actual driver was status, to impress and demonstrate wealth as, by this time, Scotland was generally a peaceable country. The actual tower was invariably not adequate in size to accommodate the household retinue and hence was generally supplemented by other buildings and accommodations which often included a large hall for entertainment purposes.

The key constituents of the towers were:

• Very thick walls.
• A strong door and iron gate.
• Storage areas on the lower floors.
• Bedchambers and private rooms.
• A defend-able turnpike, spiral stair providing access to all rooms.
• Guardrooms, wardrobes, private chapel and toilets.

Here is a selection of Scottish Tower House castles:

Castle Cambell in Clackmannanshire

Castle Campbell

Newark Castle, Port Glasgow.

Newark Castle

Crookston Castle, Glasgow

Crookston Castle

Drummond Castle, Perthshire

Drummond Castle

Huntingtower, Perthshire. (Actually two towers in close proximity.)

Huntingtower Castle

Drumin Castle, Speyside

Drumlin Castle

Elsewhere today have worked on:

• Two, new self-drive tours.
• A prospective Clan reunion tour.

And posted information on Rodger family history to my Glasgow Ancestry blog.

Apparently, we have some bad weather forecast for West of Scotland in next 24 hours or so.

The theme of my blog posting this evening is a pioneering steamboat (above) built in Port Glasgow in 1811-1812. Before focusing on this particular topic I will first address daily developments:

Scotland Tours: Made progress with a range of tours under review including a self-drive tour of the British Isles and a Rennie Mackintosh walking tour of Glasgow. Discovered its extremely difficult to get a rental car for one way, Belfast to Dublin. Only one company will do it!

Glasgow Weather: Mild, overcast and dry. About right for this time of year.

Glasgow Genealogy: Posted information to my Glasgow Ancestry blog on Stewart family history from information at Glasgow’s Necropolis.

Catswhiskerstours website: Just completed a new page for Glasgow. Waiting for this and another Scotland tour page to go live.

Blogging: My Scottish Country Dance post of Jan 16th 2010 was well received by the local branch. They have put in a link to the post from their website.

Steamboat Comet: Port Glasgow is best known as the birthplace of the first steam passenger vessel which was developed by Henry Bell, a semi-literate stone-mason. The Comet was built by John Wood & Co and was launched July 24th 1812. The vessel provided passenger services between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh on the river Clyde. John Wood, the builder was born 1745, became a carpenter and then purchased his own ship yard in 1781. He died Nov 22nd 1811 leaving his son to oversee the launch of the Comet on July 24th 1812.

The vessel shown in the video clip below is a replica and is evidently in a deteriorating state of repair. If this continues there will be a need for a replica of the replica! Why not establish a shipbuilding museum in Port Glasgow and take the vessel under cover? There is plenty of space, and much marine heritage and history to record in this area.

This evening, the theme of my blog posting is Port Glasgow. However, first I will address other daily developments, viz:

Glasgow Weather: Mild, dry and overcast. Virtually all the snow and ice has gone-for the time being!

Scotland Tours: Very positive developments: Two new enquiries, one of which looks quite promising. Also received confirmation of a somewhat unusual faith group Whisky Tour for next month.

Glasgow Genealogy: Posted information to my separate Glasgow Ancestry blog on the Lyall family which suffered a very high incidence of infant mortality, even by the standards of Victorian times.

Port Glasgow: This is tonight’s blog theme. Hitherto, I have only ever passed through Port Glasgow en route between Greenock and somewhere else. However, after visiting the place and undertaking some research it transpires to have some fascinating history and architecture. Historically, Port Glasgow was connected with the Maxwell family which owned close by Newark Castle. A port was developed in the late 17th century as the Clyde was then too shallow to facilitate movement of large ships upstream to Glasgow. Then a shipbuilding industry began which grew and prospered and still lingers on to this day, albeit a shadow if its former self. The following images with supporting narrative will help the reader gain an appreciation of this town.

This is the early 19th century, Port Glasgow Town Buildings. Refer also video clip at foot of this post.

Port Glasgow War Memorial.

St. Andrew’s Port Glasgow. (Church of Scotland)

Replica of the Comet, a very early (1812) steamboat which provided a passenger service on the Clyde.

Moribund shipyard.
A waterlogged soccer pitch, which only the seagulls can play.

The following two images show Port Glasgow’s only remaining functioning shipyard, Fergusons.

These stakes are the remnants of timber ponds which are a relic of the (wooden) shipbuilding industry. They were used to store imported timber.

This is Newark Castle which originated as a 15th century Tower House.
Video no 1 shows a redundant ship building facility with cranes.

Video no 2 shows the impressive Town Buildings.