River Clyde
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The River Clyde, looking eastwards upstream, as it passes beneath the Kingston Bridge in Central Glasgow. |
The
River Clyde (
Cluaidh in
Scottish Gaelic) is a major
river in
Scotland. At 106
miles (176
km) long, it is the tenth longest river in the UK, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of
Glasgow, it was arguably the most important river for
shipbuilding and
trade in the
British Empire.
The Clyde rises in the
Lowther Hills in
South Lanarkshire. It is formed by the confluence of two streams, the Daer Water (the headwaters of which are dammed to form the Daer Reservoir) and the Potrail Water. The
Southern Upland Way crosses both streams before they meet at Watermeetings () to form the River Clyde proper. At this point the Clyde is only six miles (10 km) from Tweed's Well, the source of the
River Tweed and eight miles from the
Devil's Beef Tub, the source of the
River Annan.
From there it snakes northeastward before turning to the west, its
flood plain used for many major
roads in the area, until it reaches the town of
Lanark. On the banks of the Clyde, Victorian industrialists
David Dale and
Robert Owen built their mills and the model settlement of
New Lanark. The mills harness the power of the
Falls of Clyde, the most spectacular of which is Cora Linn. A
hydroelectric power station still generates electricity here, although the mills are now a museum and
World Heritage Site.
From New Lanark, the river turns northwest, before it is joined by the River Avon and flows into the West of Scotland
conurbation. Between the towns of
Motherwell and
Hamilton the course of the river has been altered to create the artificial loch within
Strathclyde Park. Part of the original course can still be seen, and lies between the island and the east shore of the loch. The river then flows through
Blantyre and
Bothwell, where the ruined
Bothwell Castle stands on a defensible promontory.
Past
Uddingston and into the southeast of Glasgow the river begins to widen, meandering a course through
Rutherglen and into the
city centre. Flowing past
Glasgow Green, the river is artificially straightened and widened through the centre, and although a footbridge now hinders access to the traditional
Broomielaw, seagoing ships can still come upriver as far as
Finnieston where the
PS Waverley docks. From there, it flows past the shipbuilding heartlands, through
Govan,
Partick,
Whiteinch,
Scotstoun and
Clydebank, all of which housed major
shipyards, of which only two remain. The river flows out west of Glasgow, past
Renfrew, and under the
Erskine Bridge past
Dumbarton on the north shore to the sandbank at Ardmore Point between
Cardross and
Helensburgh. Oppposite, on the south shore, the river continues past the last
Lower Clyde shipyard at
Port Glasgow to
Greenock where it reaches the
Tail of the Bank as the river merges into the
Firth of Clyde.
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The Clyde flowing through Glasgow. The Finnieston Crane on the left is seen as a lasting symbol of the industrial heritage of the Clyde. |
The success of the Clyde at the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution was driven by the location of Glasgow, being a
port facing the
Americas.
Tobacco and
cotton trade began the drive in the early
18th century. However, the shallow Clyde was not navigable for the largest ocean-going ships and
cargo had to be transferred at Greenock or Port Glasgow to smaller ships to sail into Glasgow itself. It was the mid-
19th century before engineers decided to take on the mammoth task of
dredging the Clyde, removing millions of cubic metres of
silt to deepen and widen the channel. The major stumbling block in the project was a massive volcanic plug known as Elderslie Rock. It would be the
1880s before work was finally complete.
The completion of the dredging was well-timed, as
steelworking grew in the city the channel finally became navigable all the way up to Glasgow. Shipbuilding replaced trade as the major activity on the river and shipbuilding companies were establishing themselves on the river at an exponential rate. Soon, the Clyde gained a reputation for being the best location for shipbuilding in the
British Empire, and grew to become the worlds pre-eminent shipbuilding centre.
Clydebuilt became an industry benchmark of quality, and the river's shipyards were given contracts for prestigious ocean-going liners as well as warships, including the
Queen Mary and the
Queen Elizabeth 2 in later years.
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Although diminished from its early 20th century heights, shipbuilding remains an important industry on Clydeside. |
The downfall of the Clyde as a major
industrial centre came during and post-
World War II. Clydebank in particular was targeted by the
Luftwaffe and sustained heavy damage. The immediate post war period saw a severe reduction in warship orders which was balanced by a prolonged boom in merchant shipbuilding. By the end of the 1950s, however, the rise of other shipbuilding nations, recapitalised and highly productive, made many
European yards uncompetitive. Many Clydeside yards booked a series of loss-making contracts in the hope of weathering the storm. However by the mid 1960's, shipbuilding on the Clyde was becoming increasingly uneconomic and potentially faced collapse. This culminated in the closure of
Harland and Wolff's Linthouse yard and a bankruptcy crisis facing Fairfields of Govan. The Government responded by creating the
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders consortium. After the consortium's controversial collapse in 1971, the Labour government of James Callaghan later passed the
Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act which nationalised most of the Clyde's
shipyards and grouped them with other major British shipyards as
British Shipbuilders.
Today, two major shipyards remain in operation on the Upper Clyde, they are owned by the Global defence contractor,
BAE Systems, who focus principally upon the design and construction of technologically advanced warships for the Royal Navy and other navies around the world. On the Lower Clyde, the privately owned Fergusons shipyard at
Port Glasgow is the last survivor of the many shipyards that once dominated Port Glasgow and
Greenock.
However, Clydeside has gained new draws to replace the once dominant shipbuilding industry.
Market gardens and
garden centres have grown up on the fertile
plains of the
Clyde Valley.
Tourism has also brought many back to the riverside, especially in Glasgow where former docklands have given way to housing and amenities on the banks in the city, for instance, the
Glasgow Harbour project, the
Glasgow Science Centre, and the creation of the
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. With the migration of the commercial Port of Glasgow downstream to the deeper waters of the
Firth of Clyde, the river has been extensively cleaned up, once having a very poor reputation for pollution and
sewage, in order to make it suitable for recreational use.
Image:AM St Andrews Suspension Bridge, Glasgow Green, at sunset.JPG|St. Andrews footbridgeImage:Wfm bells bridge glasgow.jpg|Bells BridgeImage:Wfm millennium bridge glasgow.jpg|Millennium BridgeImage:View over the Clyde in Glasgow.jpg|Modern buildings, including the Clyde Auditorium and the Finnieston CraneImage:Clyde from M8, Dumbarton .jpg|The estuary opens out past DumbartonImage:Dumbarton across Clyde.jpg|Looking across to Dumbarton at low tide*
Clyde walkway*
Rivers of Great Britain*
Red Clydeside*
Firth of Clyde*
Clydesdale (disambiguation)*
River Clyde waterfront regeneration*
Gallery of pictures of the River Clyde from the Erskine Bridge
