Port Glasgow Heritage Walk

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Newark Castle and Ferguson Marine

The name Port Glasgow means exactly what you might expect. It was originally a fishing hamlet called Newark which expanded because large ships were unable to navigate the River Clyde, then shallow and meandering, to the centre of Glasgow. Newark became the port for Glasgow in 1668 and was known as New Port Glasgow until this was shortened in 1775. By the 19th century Port Glasgow had become a centre for shipbuilding, but today only Ferguson Marine remains and in its shadow lies a lingering vestige of the old name, Newark Castle (c1484). It was once home to the Maxwell family, hence the initials PM on some of the windows.

This visit took place in November after the castle had closed for the winter (and the foreseeable future, as it turns out), but we had a look round the outside before setting off on our walk.

Newark Castle
Newark Castle Doocot
Newark Castle west wing
Newark Castle west wing
Newark Castle – PM
Newark Castle window
Newark Castle – PM

The Port Glasgow Heritage Walk has been created by the blogger The Greenockian and can be downloaded from the link. Before setting off west on her route, we walked east for a mile or so along the riverside walkway. The posts you can just see sticking out of the water, in the first picture below, are the remains of old timber ponds. At the beginning of the 18th century vast amounts of timber were imported into Port Glasgow and stored in the ponds, being seasoned by the salt water, until needed by local shipwrights or sawmills.

Timber ponds
Clyde at Port Glasgow
Memorial at Port Glasgow
Clyde at Port Glasgow
Clyde at Port Glasgow

Once back at the castle, we started the walk proper by walking west past the gates of Ferguson Marine. Across the road is the Ropeworks Building where ropes and sails used to be made, but which was converted into housing in 2007/8.

Ferguson Marine
Ropeworks Building

The route then took us through Coronation Park. Points of interest included an old steam hammer, manufactured by Glen & Ross of Glasgow, and a memorial cairn to the Clyde Boating Tragedy of 1947 when 20 people died in an accident while on a pleasure cruise.

Glen & Ross Steam Hammer
Clyde Boating Tragedy Memorial

On the back wall of Fergus Monk’s garage at the West Quay are these two colourful murals by Jim Strachan. One shows fishing boats and the catch being processed on the quay, while the other shows people enjoying themselves in a non-socially-distanced way that seems but a dream now..

Mural by Jim Strachan
Mural by Jim Strachan

Looking out to the Clyde, there are two lighthouses here, Perch Lighthouse (1862) on the treacherous Perch Rock, and the taller West Quay Lighthouse built in the 1870s to guide ships using the docks.

Perch Lighthouse
West Quay Lighthouse

Across a busy road from here is a large retail park (a good stop for lunch, if anything is open, I think we went to Marks and Spencer). Set into the pathway are slabs with the names of local shipyards, such as the Inch Yard. On the way out of the retail park going towards the town centre is a replica of the Comet, the first commercial steam-powered vessel in European waters (1812).

Shipyard slabs
Replica of Comet

We passed two churches – St John the Baptist (left below) was built in 1854 for the growing number of Roman Catholics, many from Ireland, who came to work in the area. The current St Andrew’s Church dates from 1823, but there has been a church on the same site since 1719. You can see St Andrew’s again peeking out from behind the Old Bank Building.

St John the Baptist
St Andrew’s Church
Old Bank Building

Port Glasgow has had a railway since 1841. The current station building has 14 murals made by local people, each celebrating part of the town’s history. I had a hard time choosing favourites, so here’s a large selection, starting with the remembrance panel because our visit was very near Remembrance Sunday.

Remembrance
Comet
Glen Mill
Railway
Shipyard
Coronation Park

Opposite the station is the Star Hotel with a couple of interesting ghost signs – or are they really ghost signs if the original business is still there? Old signs anyway!

Star Hotel ghost sign
Star Hotel ghost sign
Star Hotel

A stroll down King Street took us past the Salvation Army, then we turned down Customhouse Lane heading for the town buildings.

Salvation Army
King Street

These date from 1816 and once included a court, a council chamber, prison and police department. Port Glasgow is now part of Inverclyde and no longer needs these things, so the building houses the public library. There are references to the town’s past with sailing ships everywhere, including the weather vane atop the 150ft steeple and on the coat of arms seen on the lamp.

Port Glasgow Town Buildings
Port Glasgow Town Buildings
Steeple
Provost’s lamp
Ship detail

Across from the town buildings are two monuments, the War Memorial and the Endeavour sculpture. The latter was created by Malcolm Robertson in 2012 and is another celebration of the town’s shipbuilding heritage.

Port Glasgow War Memorial
Endeavour

From here, we crossed the main road again to return to our car. Port Glasgow is somewhere I drive through regularly without stopping, so I’m grateful to The Greenockian for opening my eyes to its interesting history. Linked to Jo’s Monday Walks.

Scotland, UK , , ,

48 Comments »

  1. Fascinating! My forbears were Robert Duncan (born 1776 in Saltcoats, Ayrshire) of Robert Duncan & Co. Shipbuilders, his wife Janet Dunlop and their daughter Ann, who married Thomas Harris of Greenock. Ann eventually followed her daughter to South Africa and died here.

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  2. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : a fishy tale! | restlessjo

  3. What a fascinating heritage walk Anabel – I always love lighthouses. My paternal grandmother was a Maxwell – the family came down to London from Scotland in the late 1700s so I can claim kinship with the clan!

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  4. I really liked that Remembrance Day mural as well. And the two on the back of the garage were interesting in the way that the muralist created a sense of depth in the images.

    Jude

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  7. Hi Anabel – there is so much of interest to note – if we only look … and the early developments along a river highlight those changes. Love the lighthouses … while the Remembrance panel is particularly poignant – clever idea for pointing out the horror those brave men went through. All the best – Hilary

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  8. It’s always amazing how much history can be found in unexpected places. I’ve found myself lately seeing movies or shows on TV and thinking those people didn’t have to distance themselves from each other. I wonder if things will ever completely return to what they were without us thinking twice about how close we get to others.

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  9. I love weather vanes, and the ship is a good one! I found some cool gothy ones with witches and bats and things that I wanted to get for my house, but our roof isn’t very peaked, and there’s no turret or belfry or anything to stick one on, so I think it might look a bit strange.

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  10. I rhink my favourite images in this post are the murals from the railway, they seem so poignant somehow. So glad that there is an Industrial Heritage Walk in Glasgow, a lot of cities and towns are in danger of forgetting their industrial past.

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  11. Know that area well over five decades and many changes but nice to see a heritage walk around it. I remember being highly amused that big wallet Russian tourists docking off cruise ships in nearby Greenock were very reluctant to wander round the area in case they got done in. Shows how every country usually has preconceived ideas of other areas. Like most Scots with Russia probably. There’s a 1970s video of all the shipyards coming out and thousands of workers turning that coastal main road black with coats and overalls. Hard to credit just how many folk worked in those busy docks then. Most of the three towns looked like.

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    • I have family in Greenock so just tended to whizz past PG on the A8! There are also heritage trails for Greenock which we picked up when we visited the reopened James Watt Library at the end of last year, but we didn’t get a chance to do any of them before lockdown.

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  12. Anabel – Your walks make me yearn for stone-built structures. And that photo of the brick turreted older building with the new corrogated building behind!!! amazing – thanks for the walk – Susan

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  13. Looks like a great walk Anabel, we love a heritage walk with loads of history at every turn. You find out so much you never had a clue about before. Always surprises around every corner aren’t there? Looks good.

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  14. Oh those joyous days walking wherever we wanted to. Loved the murals too. Fascinating heritage. Given recent events in Bristol and our mayor announcing a review of statues does Glasgow have any celebrations of our darker national past, or did you guys leave it to the duplicitous English!

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    • Ah well, Glasgow’s wealth was built on slavery: tobacco and sugar. Many streets in the city centre are named after slave traders and plantation owners, and there are moves periodically to change that. Last week, some street activism resulted in alternative street names being added under the old ones. I’d be in favour of that being permanent actually, keep the old names but add explanations as to how Buchanan, Glassford etc made their money. Though we do have form in renaming – under apartheid, the square the South African consulate was on was renamed Nelson Mandela Place. No statues torn down as yet. We just belittle them by sticking traffic cones on their heads here!

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  21. It looks like one I’d enjoy, Anabel. Just having a quick look on my phone now but I’ll come back later to share on Twitter and follow the link. Thanks hon 🤗💕

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  22. So many places for you to explore close to home Anabel. And so much history too. And looking at your photos this could be now – there doesn’t seem to be a soul around!

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