ROUTES
OPERATED |
 Main
Crossings
Gourock - Dunoon |
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Gourock - Dunoon |
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Crossing Time:
c25 minutes |
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Regular Ships:
Ali Cat /
Jupiter |
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ROUTE TIMELINE: |
Ships to Serve:
1954 - 1969:
Arran
/ Bute
/ Cowal
1970: Clansman
/ Iona
1971: Iona
/ Glen
Sannox
1972 - 1973:
Glen
Sannox / Maid
of Cumbrae
1974 - 1985:
Jupiter
/ Juno
1986 - 2005: Jupiter
/ Juno
/ Saturn
2006 - present:
Jupiter
Additional Ships:
Pioneer
/ Claymore
/ Coruisk |
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Terminal Facilities: |
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Gourock:
CalMac headquarters located in terminal building,
adjacent to railway station. Large passenger waiting room and facilities.
Single linkspan and gangway at main berth for Dunoon ferry, but also used
for Arran and Bute ferries in rough weather. Smaller vessels berth at
second jetty, further up from linkspan berth. Vehicles queue back along
the road in specially designated lanes. Car parking is available in
limited form back towards main road although a large car park is located
at the railway station.
Dunoon:
Century-old pier set out into the Clyde. Currently vehicles board by side
loading arrangements with linkspan set into the pier at northern end
although to the immediate south of the pier is a new breakwater and
end-loading linkspan.
Passenger waiting area and vehicle queuing area located close by.
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Route History: |
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The first ever Clyde car ferry service was operated on the Gourock -
Dunoon crossing in early January 1954. The ferry, Arran
was one of three near sisters, the others being Bute
and Cowal.
They were the first ferries on the west coast to use hoists to load their
vehicles at each terminal (click here
to see how hoists worked and how methods of loading changed over the
years) and their introduction brought about the radical modernisation
programme which was seen right up Scotland's west coast.
The Gourock - Dunoon crossing has always been an important commuter
run, carrying hundreds of workers to Gourock and the connecting trains to
Glasgow. But with the introduction of the new car ferries on the Upper
Clyde, car travel was much more readily possible as well. Indeed as time
has gone by, the number of vehicles crossing the Clyde at this point has
steadily increased.
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It was 1970 that saw the Gourock - Dunoon crossing receive new tonnage.
The new incumbent ferry was the former Mallaig - Armadale vessel Clansman
of 1964. She was a stop-gap solution until the new Iona
was ready for service in May of that year. At first the latter struggled
with the route because she had to hoist load instead of using her bow and
stern ramps. Once the linkspans at Gourock and Dunoon had been completed
however, the Iona
came into her own. She could end-load at Gourock whereas Dunoon pier now
incorporated a linkspan set into it, at the northern end. The ferry used
her starboard side ramp to load and unload her cars - a method that is
still used today. |
Glen Sannox passing Maid of
Cumbrae whilst on the Dunoon route*
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The old favourite of Arran; the Glen Sannox took over the Dunoon crossing in late 1971, having herself
been converted to a stern loading vessel previously. She was partnered the
following year by the little Maid of Cumbrae which had also seen radical surgery. This pair looked
after the crossing ready for a new purpose-built ferry to take over in
early 1974.
The Jupiter,
and shortly afterwards her sister; Juno
revolutionised further the Upper Clyde ferry services. This was no
accident however, for a rival operator was now running a car ferry service
from just outside Gourock to just outside Dunoon, using very minimalist
ferries. The 'Streakers', as they became known as, were highly
manoeuvrable thanks to a special propulsion system and they could berth
with at ease at both terminals.
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Juno swinging to berth at Gourock
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Jupiter approaching Dunoon pier
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In the 1980s there was something of a dirty game being played, in which
politics inevitably played a part. CalMac were forced to reduce their
timetable on the Dunoon crossing to one sailing per hour and only a couple
of extra sailings at peak times. (Needless to say, the rival operator
faced no such barriers.) Since then, the Gourock - Dunoon crossing has
remained an hourly, mostly single vessel operation. The 'Streakers' still
maintain the route, one by one on a rota basis with the other two being
employed on the busy Bute crossing from Wemyss Bay. More recently still, a
passenger only ferry was chartered to carry out the additional peak
sailings; the Ali Cat. |
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The future is now the subject of a considerable amount of uncertainty as far
as CalMac operating the route is concerned. Interference from Europe
dictates that the route of the CalMac network must be put out to tender -
basically this is an exercise where the right to run the service will be
given to the lowest bidder! Because there is another private operator
working across the Upper Clyde (from near Gourock to near Dunoon) this route
must be tendered separately. In late autumn 2005 it was revealed that there
were around ten companies (CalMac and the private competitor included)
wanting to operate the Gourock - Dunoon crossing. This decreased somewhat
over the coming year and in 2006 it was revealed that no bids had been
submitted - not even from CalMac!! After a somewhat costly paper-pushing
exercise imposed by Government, the outcome appears to be nothing more than
a continuation of the existing situation, with CalMac restricted to running
one ferry an hour. |
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There has been some change in vessel deployment in the
last couple of years. Since the introduction of the Bute a few miles to the
south, the Streakers have seen much less in the way of change. Autumn 2005
to late spring 2006 saw Jupiter laid up at Rosneath, with Saturn handling
all the Gourock traffic. Since Jupiter's reintroduction in early summer 2006
however, she has been the sole Dunoon ferry, outliving her younger sister
Juno which has been laid up since April 2007 at Rosneath. Until such time as
the farce also known as tendering is sorted out, it appears that this route
will continue to see the streaker sailing rarely more than half full. |
Ali Cat heading back from Dunoon |
 Images from Ships of CalMac Collection,
except that marked *. |
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SoC
Links |
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To see a more detailed description of the islands and photos, visit
Undiscovered Scotland and click on a place. |
