Shandon, Dunbartonshire
| Shandon | |
| Dunbartonshire | |
|---|---|
 The former St Andrew's School, Shandon House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NS267840 |
| Location: | 56°2’35"N, 4°48’20"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Helensburgh |
| Postcode: | G84 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Argyll and Bute |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Argyll and Bute |
Shandon is an affluent settlement of houses forming a village on the open sea loch of the Gare Loch in Dumbartonshire. Shandon overlooks the Rosneath Peninsula to the west.
The village is bordered by Glen Fruin to the east, where on 7 February 1603 was fought the Battle of Glen Fruin, one of the last clan battles in Scotland. An estimated 300 warriors on foot from the MacGregor Clan claimed victory over an estimated 600-800 men from the Colquhoun Clan on horse-back.
Shandon is four miles north west of Helensburgh, nine miles west of Loch Lomond and 33 miles north west of Glasgow city centre. It developed in the 19th century alongside other similar settlements in this part of Dunbartonshire, from a hamlet to a fashionable residential area for wealthy Glasgow merchants. Several mansion houses of this period remain. Shandon Castle and Faslane Castle, dating from the Middle Ages, once occupied prominent positions in the area.
West Shandon House, built in the 1840s by John Thomas Rochead for Robert Napier, often described as 'the father of Clyde shipbuilding'[1] was a prominent landmark and was renowned for housing Napier's extensive art collection. It later became a hydropathic institution,[2][3] The house in later years fell into ruin and has been considered for demolition, a process stopped by local protests.
Since the 1960s, Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde has been based between the outskirts of Shandon and the village of Garelochhead at Faslane, and it occupies the whole of the former grounds of West Shandon House.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shandon, Dunbartonshire) |
- West Shandon House
- TURKISH baths at Shandon House in the Helensburgh Heritage
References
- ↑ Osborne, Brian D (1991), Robert Napier: The Father of Clyde Shipbuilding, Dumbarton, Scotland: Dumbarton District Libraries, http://www.amostcuriousmurder.com/napier.htm, retrieved 2010-04-21
- ↑ Bradley, James; Dupree, Mageurite; Durie, Alastair (1997). "Taking the Water Cure: The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840-1940". Business and Economic History 26 (2): 429. http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v026n2/p0426-p0437.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
- ↑ Shifrin, Malcolm (3 October 2008). "Shandon Hydropathic Establishment: Dunbartonshire, Scotland". Victorian Turkish Baths: Their origin, development, and gradual decline. http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/2HISTORY/atozhist/Animals/pix/1Shandon_w.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2009.