Dumbarton

Looking across the River Clyde towards Dumbarton Castle

Dumbarton Rock from the west

Dumbarton Castle sits on Dumbarton Rock, a volcanic plug dating back 334 million years, at the east bank mouth of the River Leven, where it flows into the Clyde estuary.

The Castle has an illustrious history and many well-known figures from Scottish and British history have visited it. The castle was a royal fortress long before Dumbarton became a Royal Burgh; its ownership went from Scottish to English and back again. The castle was an important place during the Wars of Independence and was used to imprison William Wallace for a short time after his capture by the English.[13] It was from here that Mary, Queen of Scots, was conveyed to France for safety as a child. Mary was trying to reach Dumbarton Castle when she suffered her final defeat at Langside. In later times, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II visited the castle.

Today, Dumbarton Rock is a Scheduled Ancient Monument; it has legal protection in order to maintain and conserve the site for the future. As such any sort of work on the rock is strictly regulated by the Scottish Government and activities such as climbing on the rock are forbidden. From the top of the castle can be seen both the River Clyde and Leven Grove Park.

Levengrove Park was developed in 1885 on grounds of the former Levengrove Estate by the Denny and McMillan families who owned shipbuilding companies with yards located adjacent to the Castle, and gifted to the town.[21]

A grave site in the park sits as the resting place for the viscera of former Scottish king Robert the Bruce. Removal of these "viscera" for local burial was commonplace at the time, when a person's remains were to be transported a long distance for their own burial.[22]

There are a number of distinct areas within the town:

• Barnhill
• Bellsmyre
• Brucehill
• Castlehill
• Dumbarton East incl. Newtown
• Garshake
• Kirktonhill
• Levengrove
• Oxhill
• Silverton
• Townend
• Westcliff
• West Bridgend

From the mid 18th century to the early 19th century Dumbarton's main industry was glassmaking. As the glass industry declined the town became a major centre for shipbuilding and remained so well into the 20th century. There were many shipbuilding yards, although a number of them were later absorbed by larger yards. A great many ships were built in the town, the most famous of which is probably the Cutty Sark which was built by Scott & Linton, she was one of the final Tea Clippers to be built, and one of the fastest. The ship is the last survivor of its type and can be seen today at dry dock in Greenwich, London.

Early side-lever engine designed by Robert Napier, from PS Leven (1823), on display at the Scottish Maritime Museum

The Municipal Buildings with the statue of Peter Denny in front

The last major Dumbarton shipyard was William Denny and Brothers which closed in 1963, and the remaining smaller yards followed over the next few decades. Until recently, the old Denny's shipyard tender The Second Snark was still in use on the Firth of Clyde as a passenger ferry and cruise boat. Denny's was an innovative company that had a reputation for research and development; high-pressure turbines and hull stabilisation were two areas where they were highly respected. They even built an early design of helicopter in 1909 and in their final years they were involved in hovercraft development in the form of the Denny D2 Hoverbus. A film clip of this vessel on its maiden trip to Oban exists in the Scottish Film Archive.[24]

The last surviving part of the Denny's shipbuilding company is the Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank which forms part of the Scottish Maritime Museum. This was the first commercial ship model testing tank built in the world and it retains many original features today: a water tank as long as a football pitch, clay moulding beds for casting wax model ship hulls and the original Victorian machinery used for shaping models.[25]

During the Second World War Blackburn Aircraft were to produce Sunderland flying boats from a factory adjacent to Denny's shipyard.[26]

There is still a shipyard on the river Leven, Sandpoint Marina.[27] A statue of the shipbuilder and shipowner, Peter Denny, stands outside the Municipal Buildings.[28]

The skyline of Dumbarton used to be dominated by the red-brick former Ballantine's grain distillery.

Dumbarton town centre, 2006.

Whisky production also grew to become a major industry in the town. In 1936 Canadian distilling company Hiram Walker bought over the Glasgow-based distiller George Ballantine & Son Ltd. In 1938 they built a large whisky distillery on the river Leven (on the site of the Archibald McMillan shipyard). As a result, the town became known as a major centre of the whisky industry in the mid to late 20th century. Hiram Walker itself was acquired by Allied Breweries in 1988 to form Allied Distillers, itself becoming part of Allied Domecq before eventually being taken over in 2005 by the French-based alcohol giant Pernod Ricard. The large Dumbarton distillery had been mothballed since 2002 and not long after the Pernod-Ricard takeover the giant red-brick buildings of the Dumbarton 'Ballantine's' distillery which had dominated the town for over sixty years were earmarked for demolition and redevelopment, the remains of the distillery were demolished throughout January and February 2017. The large bonded warehouse complex to the east of the town and the bottling complex to the north-west were retained.

Other whisky-related site closures such as the Inverleven distillery which closed in 1991 and the J&B Scotch Whisky bottling plant and bond in the north of the town have contributed to the decline in Dumbarton's importance to the drink industry. However, part of the J&B bond has found a new life as a film set for television productions such as 'River City' and 'Still Game'.

Ballantine's Whisky became well known for the rather unusual 'security' guards used at their bonded warehouse complex at Dumbuck in Dumbarton; these are a large flock of white Chinese geese that were first introduced in 1959.[29] Starting with just six individuals, this has risen to close to 100 birds today.[29] They have the nickname 'The Scotch watch' and have been widely used in promotional material for the Ballantine's blended whisky.[29] The geese are part of the tradition of the facility, and are both a tourist attraction and advertising icon.[29] The Goosekeeper at the time (as of 1996) was Arthur Carroll,[29] but as of 1997 they have been replaced by CCTV cameras.[29]

With the decline of the whisky industry, Dumbarton is becoming more a commuter town for those who work in nearby Glasgow and other locations. The Faslane naval base is a major employer for the area. The Strathleven Industrial Estate near Dumbarton was once the location of several major manufacturers such as Burroughs (Adding Machines) and Westclox. Technology overtook these companies and they closed down with the loss of many jobs.

The estate has also been the home of Polaroid UK since 1965. This was the largest Polaroid plant outside the US and at its peak it employed about 1800 people. Failing to recognise the impact of digital photography was its downfall and while they still have a presence in Dumbarton, fewer than 100 people are now employed there (mainly in the manufacture of sunglass lenses). The generator supplier Aggreko plc has had a facility in the town since the 1970s, in 2012 it opened a new, larger facility at the former J&B plant.

Dumbarton is situated on the main A82 road, linking Glasgow to the western Scottish Highlands. Dumbarton is a short distance from Balloch pier, where cruises can be taken on Loch Lomond. Dumbarton is also served by three railway stations: Dumbarton Central, Dumbarton East and Dalreoch railway station. All three stations are situated on the North Clyde Line, which provides a direct link from Helensburgh in the west, through Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley in the east.

Nation Radio Scotland, the local commercial radio station for West Dunbartonshire is based in the town, having moved from Clydebank in 2016. It formerly was named Dumbarton Festival Radio, Castle Rock FM until 2003, and then Your Radio until 2020.

The town has two local weekly newspapers, The Lennox Herald and The Dumbarton Reporter.

Stand at the Dumbarton Football Stadium in the shadow of Dumbarton Rock, home of Dumbarton F.C.

There were at one stage two league football clubs from the town, Dumbarton Harp F.C and Dumbarton F.C (Also known as 'Sons of the Rock'). Dumbarton F.C. are the only league club in Dumbarton still in operation, playing in the Scottish Professional Football League at Scottish League Two level.

Dumbarton F.C play home games at the Dumbarton Football Stadium (known since 2018 as the C&G Systems Stadium for sponsorship reasons[30]) adjacent to Dumbarton Rock. They won the 1882–83 Scottish Cup and are five times runners-up.

The Scottish League was formed in 1890 with Dumbarton as founding members. The first championship was shared between Dumbarton and Rangers, in the absence of a goal-difference rule to act as a tiebreaker.

There are seven bowling clubs in Dumbarton: Brock Bowling Club, Dixon BC, Dumbarton BC, Dumbuck BC, Eastfield BC, Rock BC and Townend BC.

The town is the birthplace of the motor-racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart OBE. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. The Stewart Family owned and ran the garage at Dumbuck in Milton to the East of the town, the Garage later being taken over by Jackie's close friend John Lindsay.[31]

The Royal Scottish Pipe Bands Championships, Dumbarton

Overtoun House is now an A-listed building.

Scottish poet Robert Burns was made freeman of Dumbarton. He refers to Dumbarton in a letter written on 7 July 1787.

"... I have lately been rambling over by Dumbarton and Inverary, and running a drunken race on the side of Loch Lomond with a wild Highlandman; his horse, which had never known the ornaments of iron or leather, zigzagged across before my old spavin’d hunter, whose name is Jenny Geddes, and down came the Highlandman, horse and all, and down came Jenny and my bardship; so I have got such a skinful of bruises and wounds, that I shall be at least four weeks before I dare venture on my journey to Edinburgh."

Dumbarton is also immortalised in the traditional Scottish song "Dumbarton's Drums".[32]

Across the fields of bounding heather,

Dumbarton sounds the hour of pleasure;

The joy I know will know no measure,

When Johnnie kneels and kisses me. (one verse)

The song was recorded by the internationally renowned Midgies Ceilidh Band at a live concert in Saint Augustine's Church in the town's High Street, the chorus being sung by the audience of local people.

Novelist A. J. Cronin's maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, owned a hat shop at 145 High Street.

Dumbarton is the birthplace of David Byrne, a Grammy Award, Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning musician best known as the founding member and principal songwriter of new wave band Talking Heads.

Glaswegian band Franz Ferdinand released a remix of their hit song, "Take Me Out" called "David Byrne Was Born in Dumbarton" which heavily sampled the Talking Heads song, "Burning Down the House".

Held in Dumbarton since 2000, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Championships sees over 140 bands enter yearly, including representatives from Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and Ireland. The championships is one of the biggest and most prestigious pipe band events in the world. Besides the pipe band championships there is a funfair and Highland dancing competitions.

The Denny Civic Theatre is used by a number of local groups, including the Dumbarton People's Theatre.

Overtoun House is a mansion in the Scots Baronial style built on an estate in the hills overlooking the town between 1859–1862 for a wealthy chemical manufacturer originally from Glasgow, James White.[33]