Cove and Kilcreggan

Crest of the Burgh

The villages of Cove and Kilcreggan were created by the 8th Duke of Argyll in 1849 when, as a money-making venture, he feued the strip of land along the south west shore of the Rosneath Peninsula. Plots were quickly taken up by wealthy Glasgow businessmen who built large villas and castles as summer residences. The Burgh of Cove and Kilcreggan had its origin in a meeting in 1865 of residents covened by the Sheriff of Dunbartonshire for purposes of adopting certain clauses of the General Police and Improvement Act 1862. The impetus for this meeting was the need to improve the roads, in the context of the increasing population and number of houses in the area. The joint villages became a single burgh to be administered by locally elected Commissioners headed by a Provost. Its population was 816 in 1881 and its municipal constituency numbered 238 in 1883, when the annual value of real property amounted to £12,000, whilst its revenue, including assessments, was £900 in 1882.

In the major reorganisation of Local Government in 1975 the assets of Cove and Kilcreggan Town Council were transferred to Strathclyde Regional Council. The area also came within Dunbartonshire District Council until it became part of Argyll & Bute Council area in 1996.