Dumbarton
Dumbarton
is situated on the river Leven, near its confluence with the
Clyde. Although thus a place of great antiquity, the history
of the town practically centres in that of the successive
fortresses on the Rock of Dumbarton, a twin-peaked mount,
240 ft. high and a mile in circumference at the base. The
fortress was often besieged and sometimes taken, the Picts
seizing it in 736 and the Northmen in 870, but the most effectual
surprise of all was that accomplished, in the interests of
the young King James VI., by Thomas crawford of Jordanhill
on March 31, 1571. The castle was held by Queen Marys adherents,
and as it gave them free communication with France, its capture
was deemed essential. Crawford decided to climb the highest
point, concluding that, owing to its imagined security, it
would be carelessly guarded.
Favored
with a dark and foggy night the party of 150 men and a guide
reached the first ledge of rock undiscovered. In scaling the
second precipice one of the men was seized with an epileptic
fit on the ladder. Crawford bound him to the ladder and then
turned it over and was thus enabled to ascend to the summit.
At this moment the alarm was given, but the sentinel and the
sleepy soldiers were slain and the cannon turned on the garrison.
Further resistance being useless, the castle was surrendered.
During
the governorship of Sir John Menteith, William Wallace was
in 1305 imprisoned within its walls before he was removed
to London. The higher of the two peaks is known as Wallaces
seat, a tower, perhaps the one in which he was incarcerated,
being named after him. On the portcullis gateway may still
be seen rudely carved heads of Wallace and his betrayer, the
latter with his finger in his mouth. Queen Mary, when a child,
resided in the castle for a short time. It is an ugly barrack-like
structure, defended by a few obsolete guns, although by the
Union Treaty it is one of the four fortresses that must be
maintained. The rock itself is basalt, with a tendency to
columnar formation, and some parts of it have a magnetic quality.
The
town arms are the elephant and castle. Dumbarton was of old
the capital of the earldom of Lennox, but was given up by
Earl Maldwyn to Alexander II., by whom it was made a royal
burgh in 1221 and declared to be free from all imposts and
burgh taxes. Later sovereigns gave it other privileges, and
the whole were finally confirmed by a charter of James VI.
It had the right to levy customs and dues on all vessels on
the Clyde between Loch Long and the Kelvin. Offers dues on
foreign ships entering the Clyde were also exacted.
The
first steam navigation. company was established in Dumbarton
in 1815, when the Duke of Wellington (built in the town) plied
between Dumbarton and Glasgow. But it was not till 1844, consequent
on the use of iron for vessels, that shipbuilding became the
leading industry, though that has now passed.
