Going Doon The Watter

Doon The Watter

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Queuing for the bus to Gourock at the Glasgow Fair. Picture: Newquest Herald and Times

In the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to visit some of these places again. The towns are now often bypassed as holiday destinations by Glaswegians for places further afield, but they are still popular places for day trippers (and, it has to be said, for retirement). With the towns down the Clyde coast still entertaining visitors with crazy golf, ice cream, buckets and spades and even an outdoor swimming pool it is easy to get a nostalgic sense of the former glories of these places.

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Some of my grandfather's old holiday postcards home from Millport, Stevenston, Arran and Ayr.

My grandfather on my dad's side had a habit of holding on to old postcards, which he passed on to me years ago. These were either received by him, or his parents from numerous holidays over the years from the early 1900s up until about 1939. Those pictured above were sent back to my great-grandad in Glasgow, where he worked in a foundry in Parkhead and then the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. A trip doon the watter to Millport, Stevenston, Arran or Ayr was a pleasant break in the fresh air away from the smoke and grime of Glasgow in the early twentieth century.

The Millport postcard above shows a match on the Millport Golf Course between professional golfers; JH Taylor and Ted Ray vs James Braid and George Duncan from July 23, 1913. The postcard showing The Cross in Stevenston tells us that Isa was "having a great time down here" with the postmark showing that she was holidaying during the Glasgow Fair. The 1921 postcard from Caticol, Arran bemoans the poor weather that they are having and the 1932 postcard showing the "River Ayr Walk" tells us that they are have "...had a great holiday in Ayr. One of the best."

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My mum at the front, her brother and sister and my grandad on holiday in Dunoon

A couple of decades later, in the 1950s mum was also enjoying seaside holidays down the Clyde. This holiday photograph above from 1959 has my mum stood in front of her brother and sister and my grandad, having a break on the shore at Dunoon.

As a child of the 1970s, like many other Glaswegians, my earliest holidays were to these same places. I can remember going to Arran with my parents, my granny and grandad (above) when I was about 5 years old. My other memorable early holidays were to the Butlin's Holiday Camp in Ayr and a holiday stay in the youth Hostel at Fintry, making me the fourth generation to take my holidays in these places.

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A trip further afield to Leven in Fife

PS Waverley

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PS Waverley, now based in Glasgow at the Science Centre

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Ready to leave on our trip

If you want to get a feel for the old days of paddle steamer trips down the Clyde there is only one option of course. The world's last sea-going paddle steamer, the beautiful PS Waverley. The first PS Waverley was built in 1899, named after Sir Walter Scott's novel. During the Second World War she was used by the navy as a minesweeper and was sunk in 1940 whilst evacuating British troops from Dunkirk. She was replaced in 1946 by the current Waverley, built at the Pointhouse Shipyards just across the River Clyde from where she is usually berthed now at the Glasgow Science Centre. All through the summer months various routes run to Largs, Helensburgh, Bute, Cumbrae and the lochs. You can either get a ticket to let you on and off at various points along the route or stay on board all day and enjoy refreshments in one of her two bars. This is often the most popular outing, and this longstanding tradition is the origin of the phrase "steaming" or "steamboats" to describe a state of drunkeness which may result.

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Heading under the Erskine Bridge on PS Waverley

With the Waverley's 2016 season just started on the May holiday weekend, we decided to take a trip from Glasgow to Helensburgh, via Greenock. It can take a surprisingly large number of people spread throughout the various lounges, decks and bars. As everyone jockeys for position to get the best view, you soon realise that there is hardly a bad seat on the place. As people start to wander about, space opens up. You can soon see how little Glasgow now uses the river that runs through its heart. You puff down the Clyde today are rarely meet another boat, in stark contrast to old photographs when the banks were deep with ships and boats of various sizes. Passing the old shipyard slipways and the couple of remaining yards it is hard not to think we really need to try harder to utilise the Clyde and support those still working on it. At many points the biggest industry on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow seems to be scrapyards, with huge piles of metal on either bank awaiting transportation overseas to be recycled.

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One of the bars on board the Waverley

The dining saloon offers rolls and bacon in the morning and meals later on, and you can take a break from watching Glasgow float past by going below deck to watch the mighty engine pumping away, a blur of beautiful brass and steel.

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My favourite urinal to watch Glasgow sail past whilst I pee on the Waverley

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Powering across the Clyde from Greenock to Helensburgh

After two hours we disembarked at Helensburgh pier and waved goodbye to the Waverley from the shore. It is a marvellous way to spend a few hours.

There may no longer be an outdoor swimming pool in Helensburgh, but I have vague childhood memories of swimming in it with my grandad in the late 1970s before it closed. I think I can remember the sides of the pool being very rough. More unbelievably, as I look into the murky water from the pier, I used to get the train here with school friends in the 1980s and we would all launch ourselves into the Clyde to swim. Helensburgh was home to Henry Bell, who started the steamboat fad with his Comet (he also owned the Helensburgh public baths). It was once also home to such luminaries as the inventor of the television, John Logie Baird, and Holywood actress Deborah Kerr.

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The Waverley leaving the pier at Helensburgh

My grandad's old postcards show evidence of their trips on steamboats down the Clyde. These postcards below are of a boat arriving at Blairmore Pier near Dunoon, and of the PS Lord of the Isles in the Kyles of Bute, near Tighnabuaich. The Lord of the Isles ran the Glasgow to Inverary route from 1891 to 1928.