Cove

Cove shops

Cove is a village on the south-west of the Rosneath peninsula, on the east shore of Loch Long. Before the local government reorganisation in Scotland in 1975 it formed part of the small Joint Burgh of Cove and Kilcreggan, in the County of Dumbarton.

Looking across Loch Long

It was home to wealthy Glasgow merchants and ship owners in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of the large houses have either been converted or have gone. Survivors include over a dozen houses by Alexander "Greek" Thomson: Knockderry Castle, Craigrownie Castle, Cove Castle, all still private residences, Glen Eden, Craig Ailey, Ferndean and Seymour Lodge, all dating from the 1850s. Of those not by Thomson, Hartfield Castle was the summer residence of Lord Inverclyde became a YMCA hostel before its dereliction and demolition in the 1960s.

Cove from hill above

Cove is the location of the Burgh, which hosts a wide variety of community activities, Cove Sailing Club and the Linn Gardens. The gardens contain extensive collections of other temperate plants. Notable is the fern collection with many trunked specimens, the 'New Zealand heath' with spiny Aciphyllas and Celmisias, the carpets of wild garlic and bluebells in the more wooded areas and a bamboo garden with some three dozen species from four continents.

Photographs

All = © Margaret Isaacs