Meadow Place Pier (Skelmorlie Pier) , Shore Road, Skelmorlie – (1857 to 1870s)
Photos: 1. The old pier at Meadow Place, Meadow place itself (on the left) with ‘Dr Currie’s Hydropathic’ prominent on the hill above – Facebook: Skelmorlie & Wemyss Bay in their heyday. 2. Meadow Pier from Eglinton Place – Facebook: Skelmorlie & Wemyss Bay in their heyday.
Research:
Skelmorlie Pier at Meadow Place was built as a steamer stop on the Glasgow to Largs route and opened in 1857. At the time, the journey which called at Renfrew, Cartsmouth, Erskine Ferry, Dumbarton, Greenock, Inverkip Ferry, Whiting (Wemyss) Bay, and Skelmorlie, took five hours and cost 7/6d cabin fare single. The steamers were popular with holiday makers and provided an alternative mode of transport, to horse and coach, which ran infrequently. [1]
Sadly, Skelmorlie’s pier did not last long. Once the Glasgow to Wemyss Bay railway opened in 1865, the cost of the journey from Glasgow to Largs reduced to 2/7d, and the time, to around 1.5 hours; a third of which was the time on the steamer, between the new Wemyss Bay Pier and Largs. [1]
Captain Duncan McKellar, the owner of the fleet of Largs and Millport steamers continued to call at Skelmorlie Pier even after the opening of the rail head half a mile away, but even he had to realise the immensely powerful competition & the last season, when calls were advertised, was 1869. [1] [2]
For a while after this, it’s believed that the pier supplied private yachts with fresh water, as it had a supply of water from the old reservoir at Annetyard. The pier is understood to have been dismantled sometime during the next 10 years. [1]
References:
- “Skelmorlie -The story of the Parish consisting of Skelmorlie & Wemyss Bay” by Walter Smart, 1968.
- “Centennial History of Wemyss Bay’s Station and Pier” by Donald Kelly, Muasdale, Kintyre, Argyll, and formerly of Skelmorlie. (2003).