I have to hold my hands up, we've let you down a bit in recent times. The site hasn't been updated and to be truthful, it has looked a bit in need of some TLC. This should change! Our webmaster, Jim Chestnut, met with Stewart Noble and me today, to give us a crash course in updating and maintaining the site.

Some of the changes you should notice immediately. Others including improving the search terms for Google (other search engines are available!), will be ongoing but will take a bit longer.

Robert Ryan (Chairman Helensburgh Heritage Trust)

At Helensburgh the twenty-seventh day of July eighteen hundred and thirty-three, at eight  o'clock AM being the time fixed for ascertaining and going along the Boundary lines of the Burgh specified in the charter and fixing in proper places Boundary stones in order that the Boundaries may be known in time coming.

The Very Early Days

Rosneath is one of the older settlements in the local area, and its name is said to be derived from the Gaelic "Rosneveth", meaning "headland of the sanctuary", which in turn probably relates to St Modan. It should however be noted that there are other possible derivations of the village’s name.

HER Royal Highness Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, had a huge impact on Helensburgh and Garelochside, where she lived in Rosneath Castle and loved the beauty and quietness of the Gareloch.

HELENSBURGH has always prided itself that a Prime Minister came from the burgh, despite the fact that he is known as “The Unknown Prime Minister”.

A HELENSBURGH man who served as a County Councillor for 23 years was a First World War hero who won the Victoria Cross, the top award for gallantry in the face of the enemy.

THE sad event of 8 September 2022 has set me thinking back to the Queen’s Accession on 6 February 1952.

A FOLK singer who came to live in Helensburgh 2007 is famous throughout Scotland and has been described as having ‘a God given voice that knocks you sideways’.

A FORMER professional footballer who spent the last 18 years of his life in Helensburgh managed Manchester United for five years and Ipswich Town for 18 years.

John Carlaw, RSW (1850 – 1934)

Born in Glasgow in 1850, John Carlaw began his working life as a designer at the Saracen Foundry but retired early in the mid 1890's to devote himself fulltime to painting.  As he had family connections with Helensburgh, he came here to live with two sisters at Seacliffe on East Clyde Street, which subsequently became part of the Queen's Hotel and, later, was converted into flats as Queen's Court. 

Tom Campbell  (1865 - 1943)

Tom Campbell painted views of the west coast and islands, using a sharp, highly coloured style.  He was a most prolific painter, Mainly in watercolour or gouache, whose subjects included landscapes with sheep; children playing on sandy beaches; and marine scenes such as the one in the Anderson Trust Collection.  He sold many of his works through the Glasgow department store Daly’s.

                                                    Edith Buchanan

1889 – 1978

Edith Buchanan was the daughter of J.G. Chrystal of Broomhill, Cardross.  She served as a VAD in Dumbarton during the First World War and, in 1919, she married John Buchanan and moved to his estancia in the Argentine, returning to Scotland in 1923.  Until the outbreak of World War II  they lived at Ardpeaton in Coulport.  In 1939 they bought Rowmore in Rhu, which was home for the family and, latterly for  Edith Buchanan and her two daughters, for over thirty years.