Victorian Boathouse Dunoon

Victorian boathouse

A surviving Victorian boathouse lies under the coastal Bullwood Road on the southern outskirts of Dunoon. The boathouse survived a road widening programme in the 1970s, when the road was built over it.

The boathouse comprises a stone built chamber which would originally have had wrought iron gates, one of which lies nearby on the beach. Electric lighting has been installed at some time in the past, however the boathouse has been vandalised over the years, and the internal fittings stripped. Probably dating from the latter half of the 19th century, the date of construction is unknown, as is the identity of the house it would have served.

Road widening

Victorian boathouse below road

Most Victorian houses in the area were provided with boathouses, which would generally have been timber built. Most of these have been lost over the years, and many were destroyed when Bullwood Road was widened during the 1970s to cater for construction of the Ardyne Point Yard to the west, and the additional traffic the oil platform construction yard would supposedly bring, but never did.

Evidence of many boathouses can be found along the shore of the coastal road, where strips of beach have been cleared of rocks to allow boats to be dragged to and from the water.