It was the long weekend for our Queen's Platinum Jubilee and I found myself with a free Friday. You can only watch so much of the celebrations on TV and I decided to head over to Glasgow on an early bus to complete the final leg of my Renfrewshire railway walking. I had already approached the small town of Kilmacolm from the Greenock terminus of the Princes Pier Line - built to connect Glasgow with the ocean-going liners that departed from the deeper downstream waters on the Clyde. Today I would be arriving at the same place from the Johnstone end of the route that originally ran via Paisley Canal station.
Services to Greenock ceased in 1959 as part of a rationalisation process. The rapid advances in aviation were affecting the long-distance passenger ship routes and Greenock already had another main line connection to Glasgow. The Princes Pier link had its tracks pared back to Kilmacolm and the demolition of a huge viaduct on the closed section ensured trains would never again reach the coast this way. Another blow came in 1983 when British Rail stopped all services on the remaining line and tore up the tracks. A surprisingly late closure following the mass butchery of the national network committed in the 60s. Services from Glasgow to Paisley Canal have since resumed but the rest of the route was converted to a cycleway. Taking advantage of the public holiday off-peak fares, I rolled into Johnstone station (on the Ayr line) for the third time in recent weeks. A quick traverse of the High Street brought me to the old trackbed that once featured a station called Johnstone North. The line split here for Kilmacolm (via Bridge of Weir) and Lochwinnoch - the latter link closing in 1966 after it was considered to duplicate the stretch of the Ayr line running through today's station at Lochwinnoch. I crossed the A737 dual carriageway on a footbridge and picked up the railway path on the other side. This was the final piece of the jigsaw in my ramblings around these parts. The first three miles were fairly uneventful, passing between fields and the first point of interest was Bridge of Weir. With a population of 5000, I'm not sure whether the historic crossing point over the River Gryffe should be classed as a town or village. Leather tanning was an important trade here and the industry maintains a presence to this day. The railway ran handily parallel to the main drag as I approached the centre and I jumped down on to the pavement for a while. I wanted to have a look at the skewed viaduct that crossed the Gryffe but this proved difficult due to thick vegetation and I could only catch glimpses of the five-arch structure. An attempt at viewing from the other side of the river proved equally frustrating and the fences around a block of new apartments prevented access to the bank. Never mind, I pressed on and was on target to hook up with the hourly bus service that ran back from Kilmacolm.
A flash of red appeared in the distance and I soon came face to face with a lineside art installation by Cornwall sculptor David Kemp. Titled Mile XVII Legion and representing the "lost" company of Roman soldiers, the metal figures stand guard in a rather menacing manner. Legion XVII of the Imperial Roman Army disappeared in the year 9 AD after being sent to deal with troubling tribes in Germanica. What happened to them thereafter has long puzzled historians. Popular legend states they continued into Scotland and fell off the radar around the area where Dunbartonshire meets Renfrewshire. This urban myth has now become cemented in history thanks to popular fiction such as The Eagle of the Ninth and films like Centurion and The Eagle - all based in Scotland. A more plausible theory suggests the legion was destroyed in the Battle of Tetoburg Forest in today's Lower Saxony, Germany. Whatever the fate of these men, the artwork certainly livened up the walk! I soon reached Kilmacolm where the old station house now functions as a gastropub. It was just a short walk to the town centre and a McGill's bus returned me to Johnstone via an interesting place called Quarrier's Village. I had seen the three-quarter mile detour to Quarrier's signposted on the cycleway and had taken a photo of a church tower in the distance. I had decided against further investigation as my planned walk was enough for the day but now I had the opportunity to view the village from the bus as it trundled through the streets. I passed a grand building called Campbell Snowdon House (now a care home) and there was other elaborate architecture in evidence. I knew nothing about Quarrier's Village but quickly surmised it had been built for a specific purpose. But what? Once I had alighted in Johnstone, I found a bench in the town square, whipped out my phone and did some research.
Quarrier's Village was founded in 1876 as the Orphan Homes of Scotland by Glasgow philanthropist William Quarrier. He envisioned a community allowing the young people in his care to thrive in a countryside environment while quartered in a number of grand residences under the supervision of a house mother and father. The village also contained a tuberculosis sanatorium - now converted to residential flats. The children's homes were run along a religious ethos and this is reflected in street names such as Faith Avenue. Changing attitudes towards childcare resulted in far fewer residents at Quarrier's by the 1980s and most of the facilities were sold off as private homes. Today the village offers a restaurant, craft centre, museum and heritage trail. I'll certainly come back for a proper nose around. Amazing how a fairly low-key railway walk opened up such a rich historical vein to explore.
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