Alistair Deayton: 12 books

From Gigha in the south to Lewis in the north and St Kilda in the west, Alistair Deayton covers the piers of the Hebrides and other outlying islands in the companion volume to his West Highland Piers. Since the 1810s, steamers have provided a valuable service to the communities of the Western Isles....

Services from mainland Scotland to Orkney and Shetland were, from the dawn of steam navigation right up until 2002, in the hands of the North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Shipping Company, known as the North Company, whose predecessors dated back to 1790 and which became part of P&O Ferries...

Often a lifeline for remote waterside communities, the Scottish pier has been a functional rather than a pleasure pier. Served by paddle steamers, puffers and small coasters, the piers served a vital function for their communities. Often with stunning mountain backdrops, many settlements clustered...

Created in 1973 with the amalgamation of the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. and David MacBrayne, CalMac’s black hulls and white toppings have been a common sight on the Clyde estuary, sailing to the Western Isles and on numerous short crossings in the western Highlands. So widely does the company operate...

In 1897, a revolutionary new type of ship blasted its way through the Royal Review at an unprecedented 30+ knots. This small vessel, still extant in Newcastle, was the Turbinia, and she was powered by the world's first marine steam turbine. Developed by Charles Parsons, in one fell swoop she revolutionised...

Unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom the pier in Scotland has always seen as functional rather than as a pleasure pier. This was certainly the case on the West Highland Coast. During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century shipping was the only way to transport goods and people...

At the turn of the twentieth century, new laws introduced paid holidays for the masses and the seaside towns of Scotland saw a huge influx of visitors. Holidaymakers poured from Glasgow, Paisley and the industrial heartland of Scotland on the Fair Holiday trip 'doon the watter'. Some Scottish resorts...

Built in 1949 in Southampton for the Southampton, Isle of Wight & South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., MV Balmoral operated in their Red Funnel fleet for twenty years. Moving to Bristol, she became the last vessel purchased by P&A Campbell for the pleasure steamer services down the...

The Caledonian Steam Packet Co. was founded in 1889 by the Caledonian Railway and in 2014 is 125 years old. It originally sailed from Gourock but came to encompass many of the Clyde coast piers and resorts, from Girvan to Argyll. At one time in competition with the Glasgow & South Western steamers...

David MacBrayne's involvement in West Highland shipping services soon grew to encompass all of the major routes to the Isles. The company was eventually taken into state ownership and amalgamated with the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. to become Caledonian MacBrayne. This volume tells the story of MacBrayne's in private ownership up to the end of the independent company in 1972.

In 1851 G.&J. Burns sold their West Highland steamer services to David Hutcheson & Co. One of the conditions of the sale was that Hutcheson take on David MacBrayne, a nephew of the Burns brothers, as a junior partner. When David Hutcheson retired in 1878, David MacBrayne, at the age of sixty-five,...

On 8 August 1974, the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer was sold by her owners for the princely sum of a pound. The PS Waverley has now spent more of her career in preservation than in service with the British Transport Commission and Caledonian MacBrayne. She is still a common sight on the Clyde,...