Keeping in line on the Solway.

Back in October, Billy, Jim, Phil, Tony and I convened at Carrick shore in Scotland's deep south, the Solway.

We planned to take the flood tide east to Little Ross Island and Kirkcudbright Bay.

A nice NW breeze soon had the Flat Earth sail filled and I was flying away towards Barlocco Isle.

It is just as well that the wind dropped or we would not have been able to practice five abreast formation paddling...

...on our way to Meggerland Point.

Sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar 2011

I wish a belated Happy New Year to all visitors to seakayakphoto.com. As way of a celebration of the last year and in anticipation of sea kayaking adventures yet to come, here is the 7th annual sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar from seakayakphoto.com. The above link will lead to high resolution photos in four different desktop sizes.

January, Arran, Firth of Clyde.

February, Loch Creran, Firth of Lorn.

March, Mull of Oa, Islay.

April, Rhuvaal, Islay.

May, Loch Drumbuie, Morvern.

June, Paps of Jura from Gigha.

July, Dove Cave, Solway Firth.

August, Gigha from Cara.

September, Kirkcudbright, Solway Firth.

October, Loch Goil, Firth of Clyde.

November, Loch Long, Firth of Clyde.

December, Loch Linnhe, Firth of Lorn.

River Clyde, Glasgow Green to Port Glasgow

Glasgow Green to Erskine.

Erskine to Port Glasgow.

A 33km day paddle on the tidal reaches of the river River Clyde from Glasgow Green to Port Glasgow.

The Arc frames the Glasgow Tower.

HMS Dragon undergoing final fitting out at BAE Systems yard at Scotstoun.

Tides

HW Port Glasgow: +0010 HW Greenock

HW Glasgow: +0020 HW Greenock

Streams turn about local HW and LW.

We launched at 2 hours before HW Glasgow, 5 days before springs. We took 7 hours 40 minutes to complete the trip as we spent a lot of time on the first section to Renfrew. The ebb current became noticeable at 1 hour after HW Glasgow about 8km down stream at Scotstoun. It was moving at 5km/hour and persisted at this rate until 2 hours after HW, by which time we were 17km downstream at Erskine. Beyond Erskine the ebb remained about 3km/hr until we reached Port Glasgow, 30 minutes before local LW.

Note that large ships will manoeuvre on the section up to the KGV dock, timing their arrival or departure for HW Glasgow. There is plenty to keep you occupied further up river before then, so that you pass KGV dock well after HW.

Until recently, Clyde Estuary Control would only let a yacht proceed further up than Bowling with advanced written permission. Canoes and kayaks were only allowed to make the trip as part of an organised "Annual Clydeport Paddle" trip with safety cover provided by the Glasgow Humane Society.

Although this trip was carried out with the permission of Clydeport on the day and the knowledge of the SCA, it should be seen as a trial run. Details have yet to be finalised but it is hoped that trips by competent individuals will shortly be allowed. It is likely that the protocol will be similar to that which we followed on the day, which is outlined below. The SCA will post final details on their website once they are informed by Clydeport.

Before setting off, you should contact Clyde Estuary Control on VHF channel 12, tel: 01475726221, who will inform you of any shipping movements or whether seaplanes are expected to land/take off and warn of areas to avoid, which side of the river to follow etc..

You can download the Clydeport Marine Leisure guide from their website.

You should also contact Clyde coastguard on channel 16, tel: 01475729988 and contact them again once you are off the water. You need to carry a VHF and listen for warnings on channels 12 and 16. You also need to leave your VHF call sign with the coastguard.

Launching/landing sites:
The access gates at Glasgow Green below the tidal weir are locked with a combination padlock. The current combination can be obtained from the Scottish Canoe Association or Sue Hilder, Glasgow City Council Outdoor Access Officer. Tel: 0141 287 8585.

From Glasgow Green, there are no places to land until you get to the slipways at Renfrew and Yoker, which are in use again by the current landing craft style ferries. The ferry crew did not object to a small group of three kayaks landing there for a break, because we kept well to the edge of the slip. I would not choose to stop with a large party, launch or take out there due to the ferry operations.

The next suitable launch and landing sites are at the Erskine and Old Kilpatrick slipways of the old Erskine ferry.

Downstream the traditional kayak launching site at Bowling (Canoe Boys) is now very difficult since the canal basin was redeveloped, unless you have a trolley and are prepared to drag the kayak through the woods on a dog walkers' track beyond the cycle shop in the old railway arch. However, it is an excellent place to stop for a break.

Downstream at Dumbarton Rock park near the Bowling club where you can launch at mid to high tide. At low tide you can launch into the Leven on the NW side of Dumbarton rock. The mud flats east of Dumbarton Rock are part of the Inner Clyde SSSI and are a special protected area (SPA). They are supposed to be important winter feeding areas for waders such as red shank and oyster catchers but anytime I have been there at low tide, I have seen none, though we saw plenty higher up river towards Bowling from our kayaks.

Still on the north bank park and launch here at Ardmore Point at high tide or trolley along the path at low tide.

On the south bank Kelburn Park near Port Glasgow is good at mid to high tide. Newark Castle (Lamont's) slipway is good at all states of tide. Still in Port Glasgow, Coronation park slipway is good at mid to high tide, not sure about low tide.

I would not leave a car overnight at any of these locations.

Sea kayaking from a dear green place.

Sea kayaking the River Clyde: Glasgow Green to the Merchant City.

All Greatness Stands Firm in The Storm.

Famous for not being able to walk in a straight line.

The Clyde, a river of change.

Forward paddling, through the years, on the Clyde.

A tale of two Clyde Titans; one is still standing.

Duncan takes a final curtsy on the Clyde.

Life and death on the Clyde.

Bowling down the Clyde in the Comet's wake.

Clyde built: tough ships, tough people.

Photo Album map.

Clyde built: tough ships, tough people.

From Dumbarton we set off on the final leg of our Clyde paddle to Port Glasgow in a snow storm. At times the snow was falling so heavily that there was near zero visibility and we lost sight of the channel markers, even though they were only 600m apart. We were rather anxious not to be run over by a ship in the night, so we navigated by keeping to the north of the channel markers, then crossed the channel at right angles, before continuing well to the south of the channel markers.

As we approached Port Glasgow, we passed row after row of black stakes sticking up out of the mud flats. You can just see them along the snowy beach behind Phil. These were the "timber ponds", which stored green timber until it was seasoned for the ship building trade. They were constructed in the early 18th century as timber began to be imported from Europe and North America. The ponds reached their peak, importing 28,000 tons per year in the 1830's but began to decline with the import of pre-seasoned timber and increasing use of steel in shipbuilding. Use of the ponds finally ceased by the outbreak of WW1 in 1914.

As darkness fell, we were nearly back at Port Glasgow. The Ferguson shipyard crane above Newark castle acted as our guide. Just to the left of the green navigation light, through the gathering gloom, you can just make out the last of the Clyde's four surviving Titan cranes. It stands 3.5km to our west at Greenock's James Watt dock. It was built by Sir William Arrol in 1917. The dock is named after a Greenock man, James Watt 1736-1819, who made the steam engine practical and economic by inventing a separate condenser. This meant that the cylinder did not need to be wastefully heated and cooled with each piston stroke.

Either an eddy or an early flood tide was sweeping through the pillars of Lamont's pier at Newark. Jim went through first but crossbeams were just under the surface and he was caught fast, rocking on his Sea King's V bottom. Much bracing and reversing saw him extricated from the pier.

We landed beneath the walls of Newark castle. Parts date from 1458 and were built by George Maxwell. The castle was built here to control the highest point of navigation on the Clyde. Prior to the river being dredged, all goods bound for Glasgow needed to be off loaded here. Until recently the castle was hidden away between two shipyards, Ferguson's to the west, which is still there and another huge yard, Lamont's, to the east. When I first visited Newark Castle in 1972, we had to walk down a long, narrow close between two high ship yard sheds. The joke at the time was "only in Port Glasgow could they build a castle in such a well hidden spot"! Lamont's built several CalMac ferries, including the MV Jupiter in 1973. She plies the nearby Gourock/Dunoon route to this day. Lamont's built their final ship in 1978. The yard was then cleared in the 1980's and east half of the castle reemerged into a post industrial dawn.

We emerged from the kayaks in a frozen state, our dry suits were stiff as boards. We had landed on the old slipway of the Lamont's shipyard. In the distance, behind the castle, the crane and lights mark Ferguson's shipyard, which is the last surviving yard on the lower Clyde. Most of the current CalMac fleet (even the larger ships such as MV Isle of Lewis 101m, 1995 and MV Hebrides 99m, 2000) were built at Ferguson's). The "tower block" to the right of the castle is actually Ferguson's most recent construction, a huge barge, the ASV Pioneer, which is an accommodation and service vessel for the oil industry.

The steel hulled sailing vessel Glenlee, which we saw higher up the Clyde, was also built in Port Glasgow, in 1896 at the the Anderson Rodger and Co Yard.

In 1812 Henry Bell chose to have his paddle steamer Comet built in Port Glagow, at the yard of John Wood in Shore Street (a little to the west of Ferguson's Yard). Comet was a wooden steam paddle passenger steamer. She served on the Clyde and on the Glasgow/Fort William runs. In 1820 she was shipwrecked after being caaught in the Dorus Mor tiderace and dashed onto the rocks of Craignish Point. Wood's yard later became Lithgow's East yard, which closed in 1972. In 1962 the apprentices at Lithgow's built a full sized replica of the Comet, which is on permanent display in the centre of Port Glasgow. The site of Wood's/Lithgow's yard is now a Tesco supermarket, which says a great deal about the British economy.

Lamont's slipway has seen countless ships trundle  down into the sea to commence their voyaging. This night it was treacherously slippy as we ended our voyage and I was very grateful for Phil and Jim's help to get my kayak up to the cars.

It was so cold we could hardly feel our fingers doing up the straps on the roof racks.

It was strange to reflect upon how much I had discovered about my home city by sea kayak! We passed within 10km of my house, within 300m of my workplace and within 1.3km of Jim's house and right by several yards where Jim has worked!

On the other hand, the river had made Glasgow and allowed her to develop as a maritime trading city and centre for ship building. Perhaps then, a sea kayak is the very best way to discover a city like Glasgow! We were passing through the Clyde in a period of post industrial change. Yes there were still areas of industrial wasteland but these were outnumbered by those areas of regeneration with new financial, media, educational, hospital, retail, recreational and residential buildings. It was nice to see the preservation of some of the industrial machinery such as the Clydebank Titan crane and I am sure the new Transport Museum will be superb. I sincerely hope the three surviving shipyards are enough to remind a post industrial city of shoppers that their city was once a cradle of the Industrial Revolution and of the significance of the words "Clyde built".

As a postscript, many friends have asked "what about the water quality"? Well the water was fine. We found seals, herons and cormorants right in the heart of Glasgow. In the whole length of the Clyde, we only saw a few pieces of plastic rubbish. I have seen much more on a single small beach on Skye. We didn't even have a brown ring round our hulls, which you can still get in some apparently remote highland lochs where the villages have inadequate sewage treatment.

The last few photos were taken handheld long after sunset and in freezing conditions, they are included just to portray the atmosphere of a cold night on the Clyde, they are a bit shakey!

Bowling down the Clyde in the Comet's wake.

From Erskine we crossed to the north bank of the Clyde yet again. In the mid distance, Dumbarton Rock stood out darkly against the snowy mountains of Argyll beyond.

We were bound for Bowling at the entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal. The canal opened in 1790. We had to keep a high ferry angle as the ebb tide was fair bowling us along.

There are two sea lock gates but this one is no longer used and the lock behind is occupied by...

... a beautifully restored steel trawler MV Seahorse.

Nowadays Bowling is a graveyard for small ships. In the harbour a number of old wooden and steel hulks lie rotting, like this one, waiting forlornly for a caring owner like Seahorse's. Unfortunately she has seen better days, as has the whole of Bowling harbour. At one time, the Scotts of Bowling yard was the birthplace of many fine wee ships, until its closure in 1978.

Downstream of Bowling, we came to the Henry Bell monument, which has stood at Dunglass since 1838. Bell (1767-1830) was a steamship pioneer who launched the SS Comet in 1812 at Port Glasgow. He established a steam ship passenger service, which undoubtedly helped catalyse the development of the shipping industry on the Clyde. Unfortunately he wasn't much of a businessman and he died in poverty but even shortly after his death, his peers recognised the importance of his contribution nto the marine developments on the Clyde and elsewhere in the World. He assisted American, Robert Fulton, to introduced a steamboat service in New York

The monument stands in the grounds of Dunglass castle which dates from 1380. As we slipped down river below Bell's monument, it was humbling to think of all the human endeavour, the ships,  the seafarers and passengers, that had passed this way in the wake of the Comet.

By now it was snowing heavily and we made our way through the many freestanding dolphins of the abandoned Esso oil terminal. It continued in use till the 1980's but has been made redundant by bigger tankers and the deep water terminal at Finnart in Loch Long.

In the distance, behind Phil, you can just see the Lang Dyke. This 750m long wall was constructed in mid river by John Golborn in 1773. It directed the flow of the river, away from the shallows to the south, towards the north shore and natural scouring deepened the channel.

We were quite close to Dumbarton Rock  before it loomed out of the snow storm. We had paddled past extensive flats before reaching the rock. These were covered by countless feeding waders and despite its proximity to the city is an important winter ground for birds like red shank and oyster catchers. The whole of the Clyde estuary from Clydebank down to a line between Helensburgh and Greenock has been declared a site of special scientific interest, SSSI.

Dumbarton Rock is a 73m high volcanic plug formed of basalt. It forms an ideal defensive position with the Clyde on one side and the River Leven on the other. From the south, Dumbarton Castle can be seen nestling in a cleft in the rock. It is one of Britain's longest used defensive sites. Roman wine amphora have been excavated here, though nowadays you are more likely to find empty bottles of Buckfast,  some things do not change over the millennia. The building at the shore with the snow covered roof is the Bowling Club and its car park is one of the recognised water access points for kayakers on the Clyde estuary. The derelict ground to the right of the Bowling club was a Flying Boat factory in WW2, it made 260 Short Sunderland Flying Boats. Only the slipway remains.

To the west of the rock lies the mouth of the River Leven. Until recently, this area bristled with the high cranes of numerous shipyards on both sides of the Leven. Now no cranes remain, though the last was moved up to the BAE Systems yard at Scotstoun. Many famous and innovative ships were built here, the clipper ship Cutty Sark in 1869 and the World's first steam turbine driven passenger ship, the TS King Edward. The final Dumbarton yard was Denny's, which closed in 1964 after a foray into hovercraft producing the Denny D2, the World's first commercial passenger hovercraft the "hover bus" in 1963.

There has been so much innovation on the Clyde and so many World firsts and all in the wake of the Comet. Now a snowy winter afternoon, the only wakes on the river were those of our three kayaks....

Life and death on the Clyde.

From the former Yarrow's shipyard at Scotstoun we paddled to Renfrew on the south bank. This is one of the oldest ferry points on the Clyde. Higher up the river we had already encountered the old chain driven "Renfrew", which served the route as a vehicle ferry from  1952 until 1984. Vehicle traffic had steadily fallen since the construction of the Clyde tunnel upstream in 1963/64 and the Erskine bridge downstream in 1971. You can see old photos of how Renfrew originally  looked here. She was replaced by two passenger ferries, the Renfrew Swan and the Yoker Rose and they remained in service until they were withdrawn in 2010.

Fortunately for the many people in the north that like to nip over the Clyde to shop in Braehead, a new private operator, Clyde Link has taken over the route. This is their aluminium landing craft, Island Trader, which operates from the old car ferry slipways. The crew were very friendly and we had no problem landing at the edge of the wide slipway. This was our first stop as most of the Clyde had either been vertical quays or steep rubble banks. The crew had not been informed of our passage by estuary control but were pleased to hear we had contacted estuary control and they noted our VHFs.

The reason that the old Renfrew dragged itself across the river on chains and the Island Trader has two very large outboards was now very obvious, the ebb tide was running past at 5km/hr! This is why we had been prepared to spend time higher up the river!

We again crossed to the north side of the river and paddled alongside the river quayside of the huge Rothesay dock which opened in 1907.  It is now a yard for recreational boats! Downstream of the dock entrance stands the Clydebank Titan crane. This is all that is left of the John Brown shipyard, which at one time was the World's biggest yard. In 1906 the yard launched the Lusitania, which was then the World's largest ship. In WW1 it launched HMS Repulse and HMS Hood.  In 1940 it launched HMS Duke of York. The yard also built the Cunard  "Queens": the Queen Mary 1934, the Queen Elizabeth 1938 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 1967.

The Titan crane was completed in 1907 by Sir William Arrol and was strengthened to lift 200 tons in 1940 during the building of the Duke of York. The crane was restored and opened as a visitor centre in 2007. All round the crane looks like a bombsite, the yards were demolished and cleared in 2002. The recession did to the yards what Hitler failed to do. On the nights of 13th and 14th March 1940, Hitler ordered a bombing raid on Clydeside and the Clydebank shipyards and munitions factories were targeted in what is known as the Clydebank Blitz. 260 bombers arrived the first night and while rescue operations were still continuing, 200 returned the second night. Most of the factories and shipyards escaped but residential areas were ravaged by incendiary bombs and 528 civilians were killed and 617 seriously injured. Almost every house was damaged and 48,000 people were made homeless. The hardy people of Clydebank recovered and went on to build more fine ships but what a cost their industry had brought them.

During WW2, my Grandfather had a senior job in the Dunlop Rubber company, which was engaged in the war effort, but he also volunteered as a part time special  constable. On the night of 13th March, he was on duty in Clydebank. He was horrified by what he saw, the next day he told my grandmother it was even worse than his experiences as a soldier in the trenches of France in WW1. He never spoke of it at home again.

The Golden Jubilee Hospital lies downstream from the former John Brown's yard. It was built as a private hospital but was taken over by the NHS in 2002. It serves to reduce waiting times for all the Health Boards of Scotland. The hospital stands on the site of the huge Beardmore shipyard that had a mile frontage on the Clyde. William Beardmore bought this site in 1900 and the yard and its cranes were built over the next few years by Sir William Arrol. It went on to specialise in battleships and oil tankers. In 1917 the yard built the World's first aircract carrier with a full length flight deck, HMS Argus.

The south bank of the Clyde we were now passing is undeveloped, in fact it is a nature reserve called Newshot Island, which is an area of intertidal mudflats and salt marsh frequented by wildfowl.

Two great pylons carrying power lines across the Clyde announced our approach to Erskine.

We took a break on a little beach just upstream of the old Erskine Ferry jetty and its replacement bridge, which is now the lowest crossing on the Clyde. Historically the Clyde at Erskine was shallow enough to ford before the navigation channel was dredged.

We had landed in the silted up old harbour of Erskine and had fully expected foul, stinking mud but found ourselves standing on firm, clean, reddish sand.

This is the slipway of the old Erskine ferry, which dragged itself across the currents of the Clyde by two chains strung from one side of the river to the other. The ferry last ran in 1971 when the bridge opened. These swans now had sole possession of the slipway, while a mixed flock of waders, redshanks, oystercatchers and curlews foraged on the sands exposed by the rapidly receding tide. There is an excellent car park here with easy access to the beach above. Erskine would make an ideal start or finish to a trip on the Clyde, either upstream or downstream depending on the tide.

The Erskine bridge was built in 1971 by William Brown. It is a concrete box girder bridge but shortly after it was built two towers and steel cable stays were added. This followed the collapse of a similar concrete box girder bridge in Australia. We saw some very large icicles dangling from the bridge and as the main span is 38m high we were careful not to paddle under them. Very sadly the bridge is a common spot for people to commit suicide. Many years ago I parked my motor bike near the bridge and walked up the passenger path to the middle with my camera. I was waiting to get a photo of the PS Waverley when a very nice policeman cycled up and asked if I was alright.

On a brighter note, we found a little tide race to play on in the shallows round St Patrick's Rock, which is marked by the green navigation buoy in the above photo. St Patrick was born in Old Kilpatrick on the north side of the river. Apparently the Devil was displeased to hear Patrick was leaving for Ireland so he ripped a bit out of nearby Dumbuck rock and cast it after the departing saint.

If you are enjoying this modern trip down the Clyde, then you might be interested to compare it with an excellent imaginary trip assembled from old postcard photos by Chris Jones.