I came across this unexpectedly yesterday. It is just south of Inverchaolain Church on the east shore of Loch Striven, Argyll & Bute.
The basin the jetty sits in appears to be man made as it is cut out beside a large burn. There is a rubble road running from the tarmac public road past the jetty and round to the shore. I didn't know any of it was there and so have no idea of its history. However, the area was heavily used during the war so it could well be connected. On the other hand the site may date back to an earlier ferry running across the loch.
It is at (:gma-point lat=55.9313899 lon=-5.0577021 (:mlat:55.9313899(:mlon:-5.0577021(:mngr6:NS090751
This is, of course, a pier, as it extends from the shore over the water and is supported above the water by piles or pillars.
I'd say this falls into the "interesting" category because its appearance suggests it was constructed for some particular purpose, rather than just a pier built to provide general access.
Perhaps some wealthy landowner from Victorian times that had his own boat, and used it to visit the area, or as you say, a military application.
It will be intersting to see if something defintive crops up, as it would be nice to have this one pinned down.
That reminded me of a past, semi-official Greenock bases web site that I came across a couple of years back, and it listed what appeared to be almost every pier throughout Argyll. The beauty of it was it listed all the little one, not just the biggies, and had managed to trawl up original B&W pics of nearly ever one it listed.
Sad to say, the links all broke last year, as the pages evaporated
I don't know if the site went altogether, the pier section was removed for some reason, or it was re-vamped. Whatever the cause, I couldn't find the pics again.
Wish I'd copied the pics now, they'd have been PD in most, if not all cases, but are not lost again.
It is probably worth adding to the earlier coverage these definitions got, and that a pier is specific type of jetty, so the jetty is certainly not wrong, just not as accurate.
Looking closer at the detail, and bearing in mind I'm only going by the pic, it looks relatively new, not as old as either Victorian or World War II times.
The place looks very shallow too, so what kind of craft could operate from it?
I don't think the pier page I was referring to was down to Ian MacRorie, but that's not a definite of course.
It's a couple of years since it went, and there may still be dead links in the Main Site, but I don't know. I just remember someone askng about one of the pier's listed, and coming back with the bad news after they tried to have a look.
I seem to recall being surprised it evaporated, as the url suggested some sort of local authority-type connection or support, with much local info around Argyll and Bute, and touristy stuff. The pier pages was incidental to the main content, but for us major as it had so many terrific pics of piers from Victorian time, and many of them had never been seen in pic collections on other sites.
Again, a shame that the copyright issue meant I didn't take a chance an vacuum the lot up, on the basis it might all disappear and be lost, as it was.
Don't forget that the tide was quite far out at the time the pics were taken and the pier is quite high above the water level. I agree that the present pier is almost certainly not that old but someone has spent a lot of money digging out the basin. There isn't a house nearby that looks as if goes with that sort of expenditure. There is also the roadway leading off towards the shore. It all make me think WWII. It would take a large launch.
My other speculation based on films partly is that if covered with a camo net or some such it would have been a goood hidey hole for chariots or X-craft. Secret storage would be more difficult further up as the ahore is rocky.
There does not seem to be a pier there on earlier maps. With so many piers and jetties around the Clyde why would they choose a location where they needed to build a new one, presuming that their original pier was not much bigger.
My question is why did somebody go to all the bother of digging the basin out in the first place. Loch Striven is quite sheltered so the need for a basin is strange. The existing pier is probably irrelevant. Mind you it is well hidden. I have been up that road many times and never spotted it before. I only found it because the new stored ships are moored off of there although I might have questioned why there is a gate and a half there.
There are some aerial photographs of the area around Inverchaolain Lodge on CANMORE. I presume that is the jetty showing on them, is it not just associated with the Lodge. A boat would be the easiest way of getting there.
In the context of the aerial view, and given the draft, it does look like a lodge pier.
It may be the river outlet did most of the natural scouring of a basin, and that relatively little extra work was needed to stabilise it and then add the pier to serve the lodge.
Many of the lodges (further northe) used during the war, for training by SOE, were located close to water, and if the access tracks are followed on the OS map, these often end at the water with the legend "Jetty".
Haven't tripped over any such uses of Inverchaolain... yet?
No mention of any SOE activity around there in Stuart Allen's book. Incidentally with the other thread on Portavadie, Operation Gunnerside were near Portavadie for a time.
Loch Striven is not mentioned either, probably too much other activity in that area for SOE who liked to keep to themselves and were mainly in the Protected Area NW of the Caledonian Canal.
Indeed, Loch Striven must have been something like Sauchiehall Street in terms of the training and testing that took place there.
If you didn't see the mention, one of the stories I once thought was "tall" - although after various comments elsewhere about the "military mind", I think I now believe it was actually done - was the locking up of the Lumberjills while the "bouncing bomb" was being tested on Loch Striven.
Said to have been to stop them seeing the secret test - but the loch's a big place, so why just lock up the girls? - the main point of the story was that they were docked the meagre wage for the time they were locked up.
The pier would appear to be 20th century as it is not on the 19th century map nor the 1901 map.
The Inverchaollain Burn is still happily following its 19th century route as far as I can see from the maps. The basin must be man made as the burn is parallel to it. It could have resulted from the (relatively small scale) extraction of sand and gravel.
Incidentally, a friend who was involved with the local diving club as a trainer remembers that bothBrackley and Finnart Points had concrete on the beaches which has all now disappeared. Both also have similar roads runnning across them down to the shore. Both have evidence of tthe surface having been tarmac at some point in time. Probably WWII.
Both points are linked to reports of old ferry routes from Couston and Trouston. The dates these services ended is unknown at present but is unlikely to account for the roads and concrete on the beaches. It was defiitely an area which was heavily used. I'll ask a couple of my email correspondents if they know any more.
Interesting point on the now lost concrete on the beaches.
We've only considered the larger beaches, but it could be that there was reinforcement added to smaller beaches, just so they wouldn't be churned up so quickly due to activity, and the remains have been lost to erosion over the years, so are only memories.
Said to have been to stop them seeing the secret test - but the loch's a big place, so why just lock up the girls? - the main point of the story was that they were docked the meagre wage for the time they were locked up..
Of course locking people up for the day is the best way to create curiosity, suspicions, rumours etc.
Nowadays they would just be sent away for the day on a H&S or diversity course!
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