KYQ4: Dunoon and the Clyde

Dunoon

Sundays in Glasgow were always frustrating when I lived there. I had a yearning for open space and the great outdoors. Nothing has really changed over 30 years and with bright skies and autumnal fresh air, I decided to escape the city and take a trip down the Clyde. My original intention was to go to Cumbrae but driving through Greenock I was captivated by the scintillating mixture of sea and hills on the Cowal peninsula, so stopped at Gourock and caught the ferry to Dunoon. I met an older couple on the ferry who lived in Greenock and eeked every pleasure from their locality. They had owned a small yacht until recently. She had swum in the open air baths at Gourock that morning and they were off to a musical concert in the Burgh Hall in Dunoon. We chatted non stop for the entire 25-minute trip as the Force 5 wind reinvigorated us on the deck. All other passengers had stayed below deck and missed this high of nature.

It had been 33 years since I last visited Dunoon to help develop a preschool facility. Dunoon was still surviving with the adjacent nuclear submarine base in the Holy Loch about to depart. Since then the town has suffered like so many small Scottish towns from the exodus of its young people, an economic downturn exaggerated by the collapse of local tourism and the massive decline in public services. I was told by the couple that there had been a bit of an upturn since the opening of the Burgh Hall as a contemporary Arts Centre. This was not apparent in the main street that had a tired look with a smattering of closed shops, charity shops and others up for sale. Despite it being a bright sunny day and the Glasgow September weekend holiday, the street was deserted.

I began to explore the backstreets, they were full of fine Victorian and Edwardian stone built houses, most of them built to enjoy the spectacular views of the Clyde with light conditions that would be venerated in most former seaside resorts. As it happened it was the Cowal Open day for artists and I managed to visit some of the studios, otherwise known as living rooms. A Manchester-based academic had recently moved to Dunoon to set up a studio and had discovered a small colony of similarly minded artists. He was now taking classes at the Arts Centre, accepting commissions from China and extolling the merits of Dunoon as the new St Ives. We will see.

I walked to the edge of the town before enjoying a stroll back to the centre along the stony beach, which was littered with perfect skimming stones. I soon refound my technique and the playful zest of yesteryear. Returning to the pier, I had 30 minutes before the next ferry so popped into the Rock Cafe on the pier for a mug of tea and couldn't resist a haddock fish supper to complete the day at the Clyde resort.

The return crossing conjured up every light condition on the Clyde. Arran went missing in the cloud, the Arrochar Alps and Cowal hills displayed their late summer colours and shapely profiles, the yachts formed isoseles triangles as they keeled over at 45°. Gourock and Greenock looked attractive coastal towns, massive container cranes, open-air swimming pools and villas with views. The decadent town centres of Greenock and Port Glasgow have been virtually eliminated and replaced by half a dozen retail parks that look like warehouses and line the main road back to Glasgow. New housing schemes have been built on former shipbuilding sites along the waterfront. The myriad of church steeples and towers that punctuate the skyline remain and tell the story of godly, tightly knit communities and more enlightened times.