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Shandon Hydro - A Scottish Gem




 In 1833, Robert Napier, a Scottish marine engineer and shipbuilder bought land on the edge of the Gareloch at West Shandon to build a summer cottage, but soon like many of the Glasgow merchants he looked for an architect to build him a fairytale castle.  John Thomas Rochead had won a competition to design the Royal Arch in Dundee and would later design the Wallace memorial.  Napier commissioned him to create a mansion.  This was to be West Shandon House which cost £130,000 to build and was completed in 1852.  No expense was spared to build a quality house and Napier and his wife Isabelle Denny filled their new home with paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Vandyke and Titian, hung Gobelin tapestries and displayed objet d’art such as Sevres porcelain. They lived there happily until Isabelle died in 1875 and Robert in 1876.



The house was soon sold to a Glasgow based syndicate who intended to turn it into a hydropathic hotel.  Hydros, providing water cures in a luxury hotel, were particularly popular in Scotland at this time with more than 20 opening in the latter part of the 19th century.  Shandon Hydro, as it was called, included a heated salt water swimming pool, Turkish baths, a bowling green, a croquet lawn, a golf course and tennis courts.  There was a library full of popular books and greenhouses provided fresh flowers.  Smoking was strictly forbidden except in the Conservatory.




Safe pleasure boats were provided on the loch and broughams or landaus could be rented to take visitors on trips to Loch Lomond or Loch Long.  The Hydro proved extremely popular, until it was requisitioned early in World War One as an experimental submarine base and naval hospital.  Although restored to its role as a Hotel between the wars, its position next to the deep sea-loch on the Clyde made it essential to the navy once again in 1939.  Its popularity declined until it was destroyed in 1957 to make way for the Faslane naval base.


An interesting article on golf in Shandon can be found here
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12 comments:

  1. Mary Smith18 February 2019 at 23:33

    What a sad ending. I hadn't heard of this place before.

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  2. Lizanne Lloyd19 February 2019 at 16:20

    It was very near to my birthplace below my family’s farm.

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  3. Emmy Eustace16 March 2019 at 13:08

    Hi Liz, I've recently found a couple of slides of the Hydro taken just before its demolition taken by my father. Do you known if there was a salvage operation before it was fully destroyed?

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    1. Lizanne Lloyd17 March 2019 at 10:28

      It had reopened as a hotel in 1951 but was not successful so was converted into luxury flats. Presumably they also failed. I can find no evidence of salvage. In the newspaper article I have recording the destruction in September 1957 it states that the building was hard to budge, "Hawsers and tractors pulled and tugged at the tall graceful tower. They were still at it when darkness fell. The foreman said, "We'll leave it for tomorrow boys. The old lady is standing her ground tonight."

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    2. Malcolm26 August 2020 at 15:56

      Much of the stone was used by the local building firm A Trail & Sons to face many of the buildings they built after the demolition. Our own house was a benefactor of much of the beautiful blonde sandstone

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    3. Lizanne Lloyd28 August 2020 at 11:55

      How lovely to know the history of the stone your house was built with!

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  4. Emmy Eustace16 March 2019 at 13:11

    I forgot to ask, what was date and source of the newspaper photo of the demolition in process? It will help me date the slides. Thank you.

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  5. Lizanne Lloyd17 March 2019 at 10:31

    I don't know the exact date in September 1957 as the newspaper article is looking back on events so is dated 10th January 1969. It is the Helensburgh Advertiser.

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  6. Mike Stewart11 September 2020 at 20:47

    In 1955 we moved into the new admiralty houses across the road from Timbacraft boatyard. The houses have now been demolished and replaced by a large block within the Faslane naval base. The Hydro had already been demolished by then. We used to play in the derelict turkish baths, swinging on the ropes.

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  7. Christine9 May 2021 at 14:36

    My cousin used to take me there when I was about 4 or 5. Her boyfriend was the manager for a while

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  8. Brian19 June 2021 at 01:47

    My Grandmother owned the Lodge at the Hydro's driveway entrance. She ran the Post Office and Shop from the Lodge until the late 1960s.

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    1. Lizanne Lloyd19 June 2021 at 10:41

      I used to visit the Post Office while staying at my grandparents' farm in the late 60s.

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