Architecture Notes

Event ID 795798

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/795798

NS67SE 71 6513 7348 to 6548 7379.

A slipway on the offside of the canal was formerly part of the repair yard of one of the two main boat-yards of Kirkintilloch, J and J Hay. On the canal side of the jetty which constitutes the bank beside the slipway are numerous old steel plates which have come from puffers which underwent repair at the yard. There are still extant grooves in the stone work for stop planks and a feeder lade runs under the slipway and empties into the canal through an arched and stonelined tunnel.

To the E of the slipway the offside of the canal widens out and it was at this location that J and J Hay had their main building yard. This now constitutes the site of the boat-house for the trip boat (Yarrow Seagull) built specially for the Seagull Trust, a charitable organisation which provides canal cruising for the disabled throughout the UK. These trips start at Kirkintilloch from a landing stage which was constructed by volunteers some years past in an effort to encourage boating in the area. This landing stage is situated at the same place where Hay formerly constructed puffers and launched them sideways into the canal.

The Forth and Clyde Canal Guidebook 1991.

There is still a large boathouse on the site of this shipyard.

H Brown 1997.

J and J Hay operated a shipyard which was situated along the S bank of the canal between the yard at the Monkland and Kirkintilloch transhipment basin (NS67SE 70) and Townhead Bridge (NS67SE 46). The yard was operational in the 1890s. Boats such as puffers were constructed, and repair works carried out, providing a constant source of employment. Hay's own vessels were maintained and repaired at a slipway just outside the transhipment basin. competition from road and rail began to affect the yard by the late 1950s and the company started to scrap some boats and convert others to diesel, finally ceasing operation in November 1961. The last launching of a new boat, however, occurred in 1945. The launching of vessels into the canal was done sideways from a building berth which was situated between Townhead Bridge and the company's workshop.

G Hutton 1998.