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Parliamentary authority for the creation of an outer basin or harbour at Bowling Bay (as it was then called), along with associated wharves and quays, was obtained by the Canal Company in 1846. A lock would connect the harbour to the Forth and Clyde Canal. The Canal Company's Basin (the smaller, eastern end of the harbour, centred on NS44877355) has an area of about 3½ acres (about 1.4 ha); the first-edition map (surveyed in 1860) shows the lighthouse that stood at the end of the Company's wooden pier.

The Clyde Trustees separately formed a basin just west of that one (the larger, western part of the harbour, centred on NS44577362), for the use of vessels of deep draught, by means of a training dyke enclosing Bowling Bay. In about 1856, that training dyke was raised to about 8ft above the high water, and the enclosed basin was deepened. The tidal basin thus formed was about 8½ acres (about 3.4ha) in area. Clyde steamers were laid up here for the winter.

The difference in appearance between the outer walls at the western end of Bowling Bay and those at the eastern end is a consequence of their disparate origins: the western pier (for the Clyde Trustees) was of stone, and the eastern one (for the Canal Company) of timber. The shoreward side of the Bay has mooring posts built into strong masonry buttresses.

[Note that the Canal Company's harbour, described above, is distinct from the outer and inner canal basins at Bowling (those are centred on NS45037353 and NS45197355, respectively). The outer basin was in existence when the first-edition OS map was surveyed, but the inner basin was created later (c.1880).]

For a list of wrecks that are (or were formerly) in the harbour, see Link (at Canmore).

References:

● James Deas "The River Clyde" (1876).
● OS Name Books: their entry for Bowling Harbour.
● John Bruce: "History of the Parish of West or Old Kilpatrick" (1893).

Created: Thu, 15 Jun 2017, Updated: Wed, 21 Jun 2017