Dunoon The Firth of Clyde poster – Montague Birrell Black – 1955
Here we offer a stunning reproduction print of a second poster created by the artist, Montague Birrell Black, promoting the Scottish seaside town of Dunoon as a tourist destination. For this version, Birrell Black has called on the skills he used on his annotated ‘Explore’ pictorial maps for the London, Midlands and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway companies. The series included Explore the Lancashire Coast, Associated Humber Lines, Explore Scotland, Explore The Home Counties and East Anglia.
Birrell Black’s Dunoon The Firth of Clyde poster offers us a highly detailed portrait of the town. You get the feeling the poster could be used as a street map. The artist leads us up Argyle Street, past Milton Burn Gardens on the left-hand side and on towards Dunoon Town Centre. The wide road runs up the centre of the image towards Dunoon Pier. Halfway up the road and set back slightly is the magnificent St John’s Free Church. It stands proudly at the junction of Victoria Road and Hanover Street in the heart of the resort town. Its impressive size implies the kirk’s use by holidaymakers visiting Dunoon. The nave-and-aisles church stands prominently in the Dunoon landscape. The steeply sloping site on which it stands exaggerates the kirk’s apparent size and the height of the tower and spire. The church was built in 1877 to replace the original Free Church on the same site. The architecture is in the Normandy Gothic style with crisply carved details.
Dunoon Pier on The Firth of Clyde
Continuing along Argyle Street, the road joins Bullwood Road close to Dunoon Pier. The famous local landmark was used by ferry companies such as the Caledonian Steam Packet Company and later David MacBrayne. The Dunoon ferry provided services to and from twenty-three destinations including Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Rothesay, Loch Lomond, Largs, Millport and the Isle of Skye.
The earliest parts of the Victorian Pier at Dunoon date back to 1835. The first pier on the site was made of timber and constructed in 1835. A more substantial structure followed in 1841 after tourism to the town had increased. This second incarnation was destroyed in a storm three years later. It was rebuilt the following year and extended in 1867 by Campbell Douglas. The pier was extended to the current structure between 1896 and 1898. Dunoon Pier is now a Category A listed structure. Jutting out into the Firth of Clyde the Historic Environment Scotland has described Dunoon Pier as the best surviving example of a timber ferry pier in Scotland. As can be seen from the image the two Dunoon Bays were a busy stretch of water. Birrell Black has included an assortment of steamers, sailboats, yachts, fishing boats and a couple of the famous Dunoon ferries.
Standing tall above the buildings just in front of the pier is the four-sided clock tower of The High Kirk of Dunoon. A church has stood on or near the site of the current church building since the 13th century. In those earlier times, the kirk was linked to Dunoon Castle, a stronghold and occasional Royal residence, which stood on the adjoining hilltop. According to the CowalKirk website “It was a church of considerable importance, and records of its links with the Cathedral of Glasgow and Paisley Abbey are to be found in old documents bearing the signatures of Rectors of the church.”
The Gantocks and Clyde Muishiel Regional Park, Dunoon
The Gantocks, a small group of rocks with their 44 feet tall black and white navigation beacon, can be seen on the right-hand side of the painting. The artist then extends the image across the cold, blue waters of the mouth of the River Clyde towards the ferry station at Gourock on the left and Wemyss Bay on the right. Two more ships can be seen in front of the magnificent hills and glens of the Clyde Muishiel Regional Park.
Clyde Muishiel Regional Park was originally the grouse shooting estate, of Muirshiel House, a shooting lodge within Duchal Moor and Queenside Moor. The house was built sometime between 1830 and 1875 by Glaswegian merchant John Millar. The Muirshiel estate passed through a number of owners before being sold to Renfrewshire Council in 1952. It took a further twenty years for the areas of countryside set aside for conservation and recreation to open as Muirshiel Country Park in June 1970.
Dunoon On The Firth of Clyde
Today, Dunoon is the largest town on the Cowal Peninsular. It wasn’t always the case. In fact, in 1822 Dunoon as described as a ‘village falling into decay.’ It took the arrival of James Ewing, a Glasgow merchant to build a large mansion above the pier to inspire other wealthy Glaswegians to do the same. Around the same time, hotels in Dunoon began to offer visitors hydropathic treatments and convalescence breaks for wealthy Glaswegians in need of them. Patrons were able to visit the area, visit spas and “take the waters” for their purported health benefits. It was one of the first examples of people visiting Dunoon for leisure and helped Dunoon expand and become a popular holiday resort.
The first railway lines between Glasgow and Greenock and Glasgow and Gourock opened 1851 and 1889 respectively. Journeys from Greenock and Gourock to other coastal towns would continue by steamboat. The journey was expensive and almost exclusively only available for the very wealthy. Over the decades the rail networks improved and became less expensive opening up travel to the middle classes. However, in the summer of 1938, Britain’s Holidays with Pay Act was introduced. The act, the end of a twenty-year-long campaign, provided the right to one week’s paid holiday per year. At the time for many of Glasgow’s manual workers and labourers, the prospect of spending a week at the beach was simply unachievable.
With cheaper rail travel and easier access, thousands of Glaswegians would descend on Dunoon to take in the sea, sand and Scottish sun. In the 1920s and 1930s Dunoon was an incredibly popular holiday destination for Scottish workers. Its East and West beaches offered family fun and tours and trips on the eternally popular steamships that were common on and around the Firth of Clyde. Glaswegians described the trip as going ‘doon the watter’.
This superb reproduction print of a vintage Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde poster was created by the popular poster artist Montague Birrell Black, in the mid-1950s to promote the region as a seaside resort.
Sadly, as the roads and railway networks improved and with the introduction of cheaper flights and package holidays to sunnier, warmer places abroad became accessible, many holidaymakers chose to go elsewhere, and Dunoon’s popularity waned. This vintage Dunoon poster was British Railway’s attempt to entice rail passengers to the region.
Montague Birrell Black
Montague Birrel Black, also known by the name Montague B. Black, was a renowned British painter, illustrator and poster artist. Black was a prolific lithographic poster artist between 1910 and 1936. His work encompassed maritime posters for the French Line and White Star Line shipping companies. He produced posters for the London Underground Group as well as Railway posters for the London North Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway, Southern Railway & British Railway. In addition to his destination railway posters, he also produced railway carriage lithographs and is known for his popular pictorial railway maps.
MBB is perhaps best known for his poster artwork for the White Star Line posters and in particular his illustration for the HMS Titanic and her sister ship, HMS Olympic. Another superb White Star shipping poster is the 1930 Liverpool Queenstown Philadelphia showing the Royal Mail Steamer being guided along Liverpool’s River Mersey by a White Star Tug boat.
His futuristic London 2026 Underground poster created in 1926 is extremely rare and highly sought-after, with one selling way back in 2012 for over $6,000.His most popular railway posters advertise destinations across the country and include Colwyn Bay and the Lake District for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. His Largs, Ayrshire poster, Port Stewart Northern Ireland, for British Railways. Margate for Southern Railways
Other Dunoon Railway Posters
Dunoon’s popularity as a resort destination in the 1920s and 1930s is supported by the amount of vintage travel and railway poster designs that have survived the years. We are able to offer reproductions of several by a variety of poster artists of the time. A few of our favourites include the 1930 poster created by the artist W. Lee Hankey for the LNER and LMS railway companies. The poster features a bird’s eye view of the town of Dunoon. The poster puts Dunoon Pier at the front and centre of the poster.
Another great Dunoon image was produced on John Littlejohn‘s 1935 Dunoon poster. Once again an aerial viewpoint has been chosen by the artist. This Littlejohn poster was created for the London, Northern and Midland Railway company. In it, the artist has offered a view of the bay, town and pier. Compared to Hankey’s poster there is less prominence given to the pier and Littlejohn’s view is taken from further around the bay. Lance Cattermole‘s 1950s Dunoon poster offers a view over the East Bay with its Victorian Pier and the High Kirk Church of Scotland towering over the buildings in the town.
In 1955, the artist Montague Birrell Black created another travel poster for Dunoon. Black’s image of the Scottish seaside resort is a reversal of the one on this listing. On this occasion, we are offered a view from West Bay back tøwards the tøwn of Dunoon with the East Bay in the distance beyond. Montague Birrell Black created many posters for British Railways. He created the artwork for at least two Dunoon Firth of Clyde posters. This second poster design offers a seagull’s-eye view from directly above the town itself and takes in the view across the Firth of Clyde towards Ardgowan, Inverkip and Weymus Bay and the mountains and Glens of the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, Scotland’s largest Regional Park.
Claude Buckle produced one of the last Dunoon railway posters in 1957. It is a personal favourite and features an image of Dunoon Pier from the Firth of Clyde. The stunning image shows a ferry at the pier dock. The mountain summit of the Bishop’s Seat in the Cowal-Strachur to the Kyles of Bute region in the county of Argyll and Bute from a magnificent background.
How much is the Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde poster by Montague Birrell Black worth?
In this vintage travel poster, Montague Birrell Black opted for a seagull’s eye-view over Dunoon which offers a view of the impressive golden sands the town is known for. The poster hasn’t reached the status of being classed as rare yet, or particularly difficult to obtain in their original lithographic form. An original copy of this poster sold for $1000 in 2018. So, you can expect to pay around £1,000 for one in good condition.
It’s not a bad price for an original poster that was produced over 70 years ago. In fact, if you are considering starting an original poster collection, this poster would currently even be considered to be within the starting price range of between £500-£1000. There’s no argument from us, if you can find an original copy and can afford to buy it, you’re on to a winner. There’s nothing like owning an original vintage poster and they often make a great investment. Chances are in just a few years you’ll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Unfortunately, for most of us, an investment, even at the entry-level prices of the collectable poster isn’t even close to being a possibility. This is where our stunning high-quality reproductions come into their own. They cost a fraction of an original and look absolutely fantastic when framed and hung on your living room wall.
Our superb reproduction print means you have a copy of this poster hanging on your wall in just a few days. Add a little bit of sun, sand, sea and Scotland to your home decor. Not so much ‘doon the watter’ as ”up oan th’ balla’. Order your Dunoon print today!
