Photos by Stuart Cameron : on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

Originally home of the Earls of Mar (one of the oldest Earldoms in Britain. Later the home of the Princes Louise Hospital for ex Servciemen (Erskine Hospital) and now the upmarket Mar House Hotel.

For info on Robert Napier see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Napier_%28engineer%29

and

http://www.amostcuriousmurder.com/napier.htm

(an excellent biography by the late Mr Brian Osborne)

For Henry Bell see

http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/info-fame_Henry_Bell.html

John Golbourne's spectacular construction - the Lang Dyke - can be seen in mid river. This huge structure was designed and built to turn the River Clyde from a shallow non-navigable river into a seaway capable of taking the largest ships of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The resultant seaway was known as the Clyde Navigation and it was presided over by the Trustees of the Clyde Navigation whose spectacular and opulent headquarters still occupies the corner of Robertson Street and Broomielaw in Glasgow - now owned by the private company Clydeport Ltd. The Lang Dyke prevented the large sandbanks off Langbank from filling in the dredged channel. In the distance is the remaining structure of the Dumbuck Lighthouse - the only lighthouse on the whole length of the dyke. The Lang Dyke has not been fully maintained for many years now and is gradually deteriorating. The lantern of Dumbuck Light collapsed into the structure a few years ago and has never been replaced.

For a detailed pictorial record of the construction of the Inchgreen Drydock in the early 1960s visit the following website:

http://pudzeoch.smugmug.com/gallery/4886383_xqYfo#291462333_ZQUWm

One of the Clyde's 6 Giant Cantilever cranes - only 4 still survive. The first one (at Beardmore's naval dockyard at Dalmuir further up the Clyde) was built in 1906 by the German Benrather company via its Glasgow based subsidiary, the Parkhead Electric Hoist and Crane Company. Three more Giant Cantilevers were built by the famous structural engineers Sir William Arrol & Co, based at the Dalmarnock Ironworks in Glasgow - they were located at shipbuilders John Brown (Clydebank), Fairfield's (Govan) and the North British Diesel Engine Works (Whiteinch), all on the upper Clyde. This crane was built by Arrol for the Greenock Harbour Trust. The final crane was built by the Carlisle-based firm Cowans Sheldon at Stobcross Quay in Glasgow. The Dalmuir crane was demolished in 1972 and the Fairfield Crane was scrapped in 2007. None of the 4 remaining giant cantilevers on the Clyde are operational. Only about 60 of these giant cranes were ever built worldwide, Arrol's of Glasgow built the majority - in 2009 only about 12-14 remain

QE2's launch 40th Anniversary 'fly-past' (20 Sept 2007) with mv Balmoral - both QE2 qnd Balmoral were originally registered in the port of Southampton and the met up there in the QE2's early career. Balmoral's port of registry and base is now Bristol.

SS Shieldhall berthed at Customhouse Quay - the Shieldhall was built by the Renfrew-based shipbuilder Lobnitz For Glasgow Corporation's sludge disposal fleet. She was fitted with passenger accomodation to enable her to carry passengers during her normal service runs, a tradition that had commenced for convalescing servicemen duting the Great War. Sheildhall was replaced by the new motor vessel Garroch Head in 1978 and was sold to Southern Water for sludge disposal work from Southampton. Upon retiral their the vessel was acquired by a charitable organisation that had been formed soecifically to preserve the ship. Based in Southampton the vessel makes occasional longer distance visits - to the Bristol Channel and to the steam festival at Dordrecht. In 2005, her owners embarked on their biggest project to bring her back to the Clyde on the occasion of the ship's Golden Jubilee (50th anniversary of her launch). By this time she had been away from the river of her birth for greater time than she had served on it and it was good to see her once familar profile on the river again for an all-to-short period. During the return, she visited Glasgow (Finnieston Quay), Rothesay and the old MOD pier at Fairlie.

View of Waverley in her original 'stomping ground' - the ship was built to replace the former Waverley of 1899 which had been lost while returning from Dunkirk with British soldiers in May 1940. the 'new' Waverley's main duies in her early years was to undertake the sailing from Craigendoran near Helensburgh to Lochgoilhead and Arrochar. From Arrochar a connection could be made to the Loch Lomond paddle steamer Maid of the Loch at Tarbet - the trip was known as the 'Three Lochs Tour'. Irt was abandonned after the closure of the piers at Lochgoihead and Arrochar in the late 1960s / early 1970s.

I picked a great week weather wise Stuart.

Site of former Ayr shipbuilding yard For list of ships built here see:

http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/shipview.asp

and search for 'S McKnight' and 'Ailsa Shipbuilding Co, Ayr' under shipbuilders.