The plaque at Dumbarton Central railway station commemorating the employees of the Dumbarton and Balloch Joint line who were killed during the Great War.

There also used to be a Great War Memorial plaque at Dumbarton East Station but since the station buildings were demolished some while back I have no idea what happened to it.

I featured Dumbuck Hill a few posts ago. The hotel named after it – usually refrred to simply as “The Dumbuck” was for a long time the premier location in Dumbarton for functions such as wedding receptions and funeral teas.

Sadly the hotel fell into disuse and suffered a fire last year.

When we visited in Augst 2024 the former hotel was in the process of demolition. Another part of my childhood and adolescence gone.

Hotel being demolished:-

Hotel ruins, Dumbuck Hill in background:-

View from hotel’s rear (over a high fence, hence the poor focus):-

Long time readers of this blog will know of my interest in the International Exhibitions held in Glasgow (1888, 1901,) the Scottish National Exhibition of 1911 and the Empire Exhibition of 1938.

Hence I was delighted to see this painting of the main building by William J Kennedy of the 1901 Exhibition on display at the Hunterian Art Gallery when we visited:-

Charles Rennie Mackintosh submitted designs for some of that Exhibition’s buildings (as well as for the 1911 one) as noted in this :-

And of course this picture of Dumbarton Rock and the River Clyde was irresistible:-

Then there was this one by my favourite impressionist painter, Alfred Sisley, one of a series he painted of the church at Moret:-

Portrait of a child by Henry Rayburn:-

Not to mention a couple of Old Masters, The Entombment by Rembrandt:-

and the one that stood out from across the room, Head of an Old Man by Rubens. It’s absolutely stunning:-

Dumbuck Hill, known simply as Dumbuck, is a prominent landmark in Dumbarton, lying at the eastern end of the Long Crags (Lang Craigs) part of the Kilpatrick Hills, which flank the town to the northeast.

When I was young the hill looked quite different from how it does now. It was extensively quarried as I was growing up and now has more the appearance of a decayed tooth when seen from the town.

Dumbuck Hill from old railway line. (LMS? I couldn’t find a clear map of the old rail system. It was scrapped in the Beeching cuts, though the other line through the town [LNER?] was retained.)

Dumbuck from immediately below.

Closer view:-

Minor Art Deco style, Wallace Street, Dumbarton:-

I can’t ever have walked down Wallace Street before as I don’t remember seeing this building until this visit in April.

Doorway detail:-

I had seen this one many times: the former Co-op on the corner of Greenhead and Glasgow Roads. The date above the lintel is 1922, a bit early for true deco:-

We also took a stroll along the quay in the town and spotted this children’s slide (chute) in the shape of an elephant, with a wooden play elephant behind. An elephant appears on the crest of the town and of the mighty Sons, Dumbarton FC. It’s a nice nod to that heritage to have these play objects reflect it:-

The entrance to Dumbarton Castle is up a flight of stairs which has a left turn on the way up. On the wall facing you as you turn is this War Memorial dedicated to the officers and men of the 9th Battalion (Dunbartonshire,) Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Higlanders:-

This photo appeared on the DFC website on Christmas Eve. I don’t know when it was taken as it doesn’t often snow in Dumbarton, it being on the confluence of two rivers, but it looks lovely.

I saw this picture posted on a friend’s Facebook page a while back, and now I’ve shamelessly appropriated it. Superb.

Dumbarton FC Stadium and Dumbarton Rock:-

John Frostbrug in Dutch, this is the famous bridge too far, except it’s a replacement for the original Rhine Bridge fought over in the Second World War during Operation Market Garden. It’s somewhere in The Netherlands I’ve always wanted to visit.

I must say the River Rhine looks not very wide here – not as wide as the Clyde at Dumbarton certainly. Still an obstacle to an army though:-

Eastern guard post. Slight Deco styling.  I assume this is original:-

Western guard post. Note groove up the middle of steps, for wheeling bicycles up and down.:-

Reverse view of bridge:-

Roadway:-

Commemorative plaque with inscription to John Frost by roadway on north side of bridge:-

This is something I didn’t know existed till our visit to Dumbarton last May. It’s the remains of a well in Levengrove Park.

The information board explained it all. Rediscovered after a tree fell during a storm in 2018 (long after I had stopped living in Dumbarton) it was part of the first system to bring water into the town from outside. In 1714 the land on which Levengrove Park now stands would have been beyond the boundaries.

The rest of the stone which had covered the well has been placed nearby:-