Clynder

Clynder Pier, which opened in 1866, was situated down from the hotel. Amazing though it seems, a rival pier was built 12 years later a mere 600 yards to the north. This pier was erected by Robert Thom, who owned the nearby Barremman Estate. In providing a pier, his aim was to make his estate more attractive to potential house-builders. In the event, captains of the paddle steamers which then plied the Gareloch, found the approach to the new pier preferable to that of the old, and by 1893 the original structure had been demolished.

The new pier continued in use till 1942, when along with Rosneath Pier it was closed, being finally demolished in 1967. A passenger ferry did operate between Clynder and Gullybridge on the opposite side of the Gareloch from that point on, but the service provided uneconomic and ceased in 1947. There remains a legacy of the pier in that the lane running uphill by the Bowling Club is called Pier Road.

In this vicinity once stood a corrugated iron church, built last century by two businessmen, adherents of the Free Church, but who had quarrelled with the congregation of the existing Free Church at Millbrae, two miles to the south. This iron church remained until 1942, when it was dismantled and re-erected as a works canteen for the famous boat-building firm of McGruer's, whose yard, built in 1911 was then situated at Hattonburn, The church bell was sounded daily, to mark start and finish times at the yard, until its theft in 1980. It was just about that time that McGruer's shifted their operation to Rosneath. The church building remained, though in a ramshackle condition, until late 2007, when it was demolished to make way for a new house. The actual site of the boat-building yard is now occupied by a housing development known as The Soundings, but the old rails used to transport boats to and from the water can still be traced across the road.