| Contents Page Photographs are yet to be added to some of the articles here and 'surfers' who can't wait should have a look through the Albums of PHOTOGRAPHS here for pictures corresponding to the subjects of the articles listed here which belong either directly to the main-linked Skelmorlie group of websites or to their 'sister' websites for the Clyde Steamers, Greenock Academy, Kintyre and Fessenden - which offer 'surfers' a huge and varied set of links around The Firth of Clyde and 'The Rest of The World'. CLICK HERE FOR NEW PHOTOGRAPHS
1,000 postcards and photographs of the villages
of Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay and Click Here for More Old Skelmorlie Photos * * * * * * * * * * *
BIG MAP - 3 x 3 Map Grid of Skelmorlie as it was 100 years ago
Bird's Eye Views - Aerial Views of Wemyss Bay Pier and Skelmorlie
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The Story of Skelmorlie Bowling Club's Flagpole - Presented to the club in 1902, the club's flag, flown from top-mast of Lord Dunraven's 1895 America Cup challenger "Valkyrie (III)", was regularly dipped in salute to The Canadian Pacific liner "Empress of Scotland" as she passed Skelmorlie, outward bound for Canada with emigrating Scots.
Lord Dunraven and Yellowstone Jack - Among other things, Dunraven was one of those talented writers from abroad who visited the United States and helped Americans to appraise their country at a time when they were too busy building a new world to think about it.
The "Valkyries" and The America Cup Races - This was the era of the legendary racing cutters designed by William Fife of Fairlie and the great George Lennox Watson and when The Prince of Wales himself ordered his superb yacht Britannia from D. & W. Henderson of Partick in 1893 and alongside her was built the Valkyrie II for the unlucky Lord Dunraven, yacht racing became a popular Clyde entertainment. * * * * * * * * * * *
The Story of Lord Inverchapel and Joseph Stalin's Butler Eugene Yoist - The little known story may take on a special meaning if you have been to Rothesay and passed by, or sat in, The Bay Café on the seafront, on the way along to The Pavilion.
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The 1925 Skelmorlie Reservoir Disaster - The disaster which struck Skelmorlie on Saturday, April 18, 1925, is almost forgotten today but, if you look closer as you stroll around its quiet streets and leafy lanes, the scars are still there, the reconstructed garden walls, the gap where a family home once stood and the memories of some older inhabitants who remember the day a remorseless torrent tore down through the centre of the village, destroying everything in its track. It happened when a reservoir embankment above the town suddenly gave way, releasing millions of gallons of water down through the village. After 10 minutes of sickening, deafening, devastating horror, many homes, streets and gardens were shattered and five people, four of them children, lay dead. * * * * * * * * * * *
CLUB HISTORIES - The early beginnings of Skelmorlie's clubs
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Attic Players - With so much of Skelmorlie disappearing fast, it is vital to have an account of one of the activities that, from an early time, gave the village its vitality and unique character - Concerts with local talent were a regular feature of village life, early in the 1900’s football, badminton and the harriers were going strong, the recreation hall and football field then sited on what is now Annetyard housing estate, the football field there also the venue for fetes and the school sports. In 1927 the members of The Debating Society put on a production of the three-act play ‘Bunty Pulls the Strings’, the hall was absolutely packed and, as a consequence of the production's success, The Attic Players 'came to stage' in 1932.
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The Hydro Hotel In Peace and War - Read the story of Dr Currie's 'Hydropathic Hotel', learn all about Mineral and Aerated Waters, find out just how expensive spirits, beers, cigarettes and meals out aboard the Clyde Steamers were 100 years ago
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SKELMORLIE AND WEMYSS BAY AT WAR - READ ABOUT THE REQUISITIONING OF ALL 'THE HYDRO' AND OTHER HOTELS IN WORLD WAR II
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Skelmorlie's Fire Brigade History and Scotland's Longest Serving Retained Firefighter - In 1996 Leading Firefighter Neil Smith, known to many as "The Bull", retired after 35 years service, possibly the longest serving firefighter in Strathclyde and maybe even Scotland.
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McGinn's Buses and Other Old Village Vehicles - Peter McGinn came to Skelmorlie around the early 1930's and, a brick-layer by trade, quickly found employment in Greenock, travelling by train every day and, at the weekends especially, working around the village itself doing all sorts of jobs. After the end of the war, round about 1948 or 1949, Peter bought a quartet of ex-Army lorries and, with local help, managed to get first one and then another back into running order. Still himself bricklaying in Greenock, Peter, who kept pigs at his yard on the south end of Golf Course Road, began going round the village on Saturday mornings selling logs and kindling sticks. Then, around 1955/1956, Peter McGinn, friendly with the Doigs of Greenock, who ran a coal merchants and coach tour business, bought two second-hand post-war buses.
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Local Entrepreneurs -   
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