Hill walk routes to climb in SW Scotland - also coastal paths and National Scenic Areas with maps, pictures and other useful information based on extensive local knowledge
Walks on the East bank of the River Nith
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View down the River Nith from the tearomm on the pier at Glencaple View down the River Nith from the tearomm on the pier at Glencaple View down the River Nith from the tearomm on the pier at Glencaple

06 On Friday 7th September 2012 the tearoom and shop building on the pier at Glencaple was officially opened by Princess Alexandra. There used to be two old black warehouse-type sheds here such as you commonly find around working harbours. The designer of the new building has tried to retain some flavour of industrial type harbour image about this new building - as you can see in the second picture.

Notice the seat in the foreground of the second picture which is in the form of a boat. It has nails driven into the top surface making up the names of 28 ships which were built here in Glencaple between 1806 and 1858. Place names are used to name the ships such as "Glencaple", "Coneath" "Morton Castle", and "Kirconnel"; personal names include "William Thomson", "Mary Thomson", "Blackeyed Susan", "Duchess of Buccleuch" and "Lord Nelson", and then there is "Perseverance" and "Prosperity" to add a bit of stiff backbone to the the whole endeavour.

There is another seat/boat just a little bit further south and this one says that in 1853 "Enough tea leaves were landed here to make 14 million cups of tea" and that in 1750 "Enough tobacco leaves were landed here to fill 750 million pipes".

On a third seat/boat there is the story of a two masted brig of 260 tons called "Duchess of Buccleuch" which was built in Glencaple in 1735 by William Thomson who was owner and master of her last voyage. She sailed from Bristol bound for Havana but was wrecked on the Cuban coast. Everyone survived the shipwreck and managed to get to the Cayman Islands where many of them, including William Thomson, caught a fever and died. His widow survived and eventually found passage home.

The third picture shows the view from the pier back to where the previous picture was taken from. On the 1850 Ordnance Survey map of Glencaple a ship building yard is shown on the road that you can see here running south towards Caerlaverock. This yard was very close to where the new shop/tearoom is situated but on the other side of the road (on the left heading south).

View of tearoom and shop on the pier at Glencaple with a seat in the form of a boat in the foreground
View of the south end of Glencaple from the tearoom on the pier
Site Homepage - Otherwalks Home - Map of River Nith Estuary - List of Otherwalks Pages Ardwall to Criffel Home Page - Mid Glen to Criffel - Caerlaverock Castle Walk
East Bank of River Nith Home Page - West Bank of the River Nith
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