Overview of Dunoon

Situated at a focal point in the Firth of Clyde, Dunoon lies at the southern tip of the Cowal peninsula, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Glasgow. A castle here was the seat of the Lord High Steward of Scotland from 1370 and an old cattle track terminated at Dunoon where ferries made the crossing to Cloch Point and Rothesay. In 1795 a new planned village was laid out for the 5th Duke of Argyll by James Craig, designer of Edinburgh's New town. In 1820 a pier was constructed and a ferry link to Gourock established. In the 19th century, with the advent of paddle steamers, Dunoon established itself as a holiday resort and in the 20th century it developed in association with car ferries, with Caledonian MacBrayne still operating a regular service from Gourock, and a US Navy submarine base established on the Holy Loch in 1961, which operated until 1992. A Celtic cross commemorates a massacre of the Lamonts by the Marquis of Argyll in 1646 and a memorial celebrates the life of Robert Burns' Highland Mary who came from the nearby village of Auchnamore.