We took a trip through to Dumbarton in November 2024 and stopped off at the Loch Lomond Shores shopping complex.

By the entrance was this model of The Maid of the Loch, the last paddle steamer on Loch Lomond which I hvave featured here and here:-

The Moon over the Rock (somewhat outdone by the floodlights):-

A surprising exhibit at the Dumbarton arm of the Scottish Maritime Museum was a model of a prototype helicopter:-

The blurb below explains:-

There were also some models of wooden ships (that could be a cue for a Crosby, Stills and Nash song):-

Plus another ship model, this one of HMS Dumbarton Castle:-

One of the reasons why Dumbarton is a site for the Scottish Maritime Museum, apart from its shipbuilding history,  is the location there of a ship model experiment tank built in 1882 by Denny & Brothers to test new ship designs.

View of tank machinery:-

The day we visited there was no access beyond the doors:-

There was, though, a display of various bow types:-

The site still builds and tests wooden hull models:-

This poster shows two of the innovations Denny’s came up with, the steam turbine and stabilisers:-

William Denny & Brothers (known simply as Denny’s) was perhaps the best known Dumbarton shipyard and was a major employer in the town. When it shut down in 1963 it cast a palpable gloom over the town from which arguably it has never recovered.

The photograph below is of the shipyard in its heyday and along with the accompanying information (second below) is on display at the Scottish Maritime Museum building in Dumbarton.

Also on display there is a model of the shipyard in its location alongside Dumbarton Rock :-

The Dumbarton Football Stadium – home to the Sons of the Rock – now exists in the area where Denny’s fitting out dock lay. I’ll come later to the Denny Tank mentioned in the information below:-

The famous tea clipper Cutty Sark, now a visitor attraction in London, was built in Dumbarton, first at the yard of Scott and Linton but that firm went bankrupt before she could be completed and Denny & Brothers had to step in to finish the build.

There is a branch of the Scottish Maritime Museum in Dumbarton and we visited it last June where the above information was displayed beside a model of the ship – as well as its cat’s head mascot:

It’s a pity that the Cutty Sark itself is on display in London* as it would be a great pull for visitors to Dumbarton if it were to be returned home.

*Not that it’s the original ship since a lot of it was destroyed by fire in 2007.

The Maid of the Loch was built at P&J Inglis yard in Glasgow then dismantled and shipped by rail to the slipway at Balloch where it was reassembled:-

These are some old photos of the Maid on board:-

There are also some models of older Loch Lomond steamers; The Marion, The Princess of Wales, Eurosyne,  the Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, The Queen, Empress:-

Princess May, Prince Edward, The Maid of the Loch:-

Loch Lomond from the Maid, Loch Lomond Shores shops to left:-

The Maid of the Loch is a paddle steamer which was the last largish vessel to cruise up and down Loch Lomond. It was apparently the last paddle steamer to be built in Britain, at the Glasgow shipyard of A & J Inglis.

For a while it had been tied up at a pier in Balloch at the foot of the Loch and trading as a floating restaurant.

Latterly it has been under refurbishment.

Last September various buildings and organisations in the West Dunbartonshire area held an open day. We took the opportunity to visit.

Access to the interior was by a somewhat precarious metal stairway. The inside was of course far from pristine due to the refurbishments. Some of the original fittings were still in evidence, though.

Ship’s Bell:-

Art  Deco style clock in saloon:-

There was a model in lego:-

And what I assume was an older model. However, I remember her colour as being totally white back in the day:-

One of the traditions of a cruise on the loch (or indeed “Doon the Watter” – see first paragraph in link) was a visit to “see the engines.” (The inverted commas are because some male passengers used this phrase as an excuse to go to a ship’s bar.)

Engines:-

I always find these ships’ engines fascinating especally when they are in motion and powering a ship.

One of the internal exhibits was the decoration of one of the ship’s paddle boxes:-

In June this year were off up to Orkney again. We used the same ferry company, Pentland Ferries, but the boat was a newer one, the MV Alfred. (A couple of weeks after we got home the M S Alfred managed to ground itself on Swona island in the Firth. Lucky we missed that voyage.)

MV Alfred: Ferry from Gills Bay, Caithness, to St Margaret’s Hope in Orkney:-

Lighthouse on the island of Stroma in the Pentland Firth:-

Views at St Margaret’s Hope:-

A bridge on the Neva (Troitskiy Bridge?):-

Sampsoniyevskiy Bridge on Bolshaya Nevka, St Petersburg:-

Building and Sampsoniyevskiy Bridge on Bolshaya Nevka:

Weaponry and, below, military vehicles, outside a military museum (of artillery.) Seen through rainy bus windows.

An old sailing ship alongside the Petrovskaya Embankment:-

The same ship from the Kutuzov Embankment across the River Neva. There is what looks to be a mosque in the background here:-

I know the Little Mermaid is Copenhagen’s most well known (iconic?) site but the good lady and I didn’t bother seeking it out as we’d both seen it already many moons ago before we’d even met. The adjective “little” is highly apposite, by the way.

What I did notice as we made our way back onto Langelinie Pier was a statue of a polar bear with two cubs:-

And so back to the ship – which was always referred to on the PA system as “the beautiful” Magellan. (There was another, larger, block-of-flats type cruise ship berthed immediately in front of her):-