Greenock Has Been Wiped Off the Map!

I picked up a brochure yesterday - it is called Welcome to Scotland.  However, I was shocked to discover that on the main map of central and southern Scotland - Greenock is not there!

The port of Greenock will welcome at least forty cruise ships this year bringing over 100,000 passengers and crew from all around the world.  Many will probably pick up this booklet at some point on their visit to Scotland, good luck to them if they try to find the port which welcomed them!  Greenock has truly disappeared off the map!

Port Glasgow which is home to the beautiful Newark Castle is missing too!

This is the year of Homecoming Scotland, which will attract many descendents of the Scottish Diaspora back to their ancestral homeland, anyone picking up this booklet will have a problem with the map if they try to find the place that thousands of families sailed from to start new lives overseas!

Ok - here's my map - here's where to find Greenock and Port Glasgow where you are sure of a wonderful welcome!

Love, Liz

A Queen on the Clyde

After weeks of rain, the weather was beautiful this morning for the arrival of the Queen Mary 2 at Greenock.

 

She is the first cruise ship of the season to arrive in the Clyde - and what a wonderful ship she is.  There are about another 39 cruise ships due this summer.

 

I written before about Greenock and Port Glasgow's long association with the Cunard shipping line and the affection local people have for these ships.

 

This is "Endeavour" - a civic monument in Port Glasgow by Malcolm Robertson, which testifies to that.  I love the red and black Cunard colours.  During the winter the sculpture was well lit and the "waves" looked quite beautiful.

 

Great to see these amazing ships and the lovely people they bring to the local area.

Love, Liz

Port Glasgow's Endeavour

I love this piece of sculpture.

It is called Endeavour and sits in front of Port Glasgow Town Hall on the main road into the town.

 

Its by Malcolm Robertson and celebrates the town's proud shipbuilding heritage.

 

The colours are those of the Cunard shipping line - the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and the QE2 (amongst hundreds of other ships) were built on Clydeside and had connections with Port Glasgow.  The dry-dock at Port Glasgow was large enough to take these ships for refitting and other work.

I think that this sculpture is just so evocative of the bow of a proud ship as she slips through the waves.

 

Port Glasgow is so lucky to have this reminder of her wonderful history.

Love, Liz

Effects

I love using my photo-editing software to add different effects to my photographs.  So, here are just a few - no words, just photographs.

original



original



Love, Liz

Church and School Going To Ruin

I am often in despair when I look around my local area and see lovely buildings boarded up and almost derelict.  These are prime examples. 

This is the former Clune Park School in Port Glasgow and while it may not be the prettiest building in the world, it has a couple of interesting features.  It was still a working school until 2008.  The school and the derelict church next to it - Clune Park Church - are part of a "regeneration strategy" which will take place some time in the future.

In the meantime, I wanted to get some photos of the buildings before anything happened to the interesting features.

Victoria and Albert don't look too pleased with their present predicament!

This is from the town crest - the Latin reads -

            Ter et Quater anno Revisens Aequor Atlanticum Impune

which translated is -

            three and four times a year revisiting the Atlantic with impunity

Its a bold and noble motto going back to better times in Port Glasgow's history and refers to the trans-Atlantic timber trade between here and Quebec.  This timber was used in the great shipyards which lined the River Clyde at Port Glasgow and Greenock.

Hope that something good is done with thes buildings before they are completely ruined.  I sometimes think that we (actually I mean the local council) are far too careless with our local heritage and need to literally and figuratively stop the rot!  (Sorry for the rant!) 

If you want to see another local example of a lovely building being allowed to lie derelict go to this post.

Love, Liz