Port Dundas is an area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, located to the north of the city centre. It lies to the north of Cowcaddens, and to the west of

Sighthill Sighthill may refer to: * Sighthill, Edinburgh, a district of the city of Edinburgh ** Sighthill Stadium, a proposed stadium in Sighthill, Edinburgh * Sighthill, Glasgow Sighthill is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situ ...

, with

Hamiltonhill Hamiltonhill is a residential neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow, situated between Possilpark to the north and east and Port Dundas to the south. To the west of Hamiltonhill is a nature reserve bordering the Forth and Clyde Canal's Gl ...

and

Possilpark Possilpark is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow, situated north of the River Clyde and centred around Saracen Street. The area developed around Saracen Foundry of Walter MacFarlane & Co., which was the main employer. In the wake of the ...

to the north-west.

History

The Port Dundas terminus was established at One Hundred Acre Hill between 1786 and 1790 and was named after Sir Lawrence Dundas, one of the major backers of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company. Port Dundas formed the terminus of a branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal in the centre of Glasgow, linking to the adjacent Monkland Canal. It became an industrial centre in the 19th century, with textile mills, chemical works, granaries, distilleries, glassworks, iron foundries, power stations and engineering works all operating in the area. In 1859, a brick chimney was built at Port Dundas for F. Townsend. At it was the tallest chimney in the world at the time, with an outside diameter of at ground level. It was demolished in 1928.

Pinkston Power Station

In 1900, the coal fired Pinkston Power Station was built at Port Dundas to generate electricity for the

Glasgow Corporation Tramways Glasgow Corporation Tramways were formerly one of the largest urban tramway systems in Europe. Over 1000 municipally-owned trams served the city of Glasgow, Scotland, with over 100 route miles (160 route kilometres) by 1922. The system closed i ...

network. Equipped with Belliss and Morcom generator sets, Glasgow Corporation had decided to electrify the network by 1901 for the opening of the International Exhibition at Kelvingrove Park. A large

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...

was added in 1954 and was the largest in Europe at the time. After passing to the South of Scotland Electricity Board in 1958, it was decommissioned in the 1960s, with the cooling tower being demolished in 1977, the first chimney was demolished on a Sunday in April 1978, and the other chimney came down the following Sunday.

Industrial decline and regeneration

Industry in the area declined through the 20th century. The Monkland Canal was closed to navigation in 1952, and the Forth and Clyde in 1963. Charles Tennant's St.Rollox Chemical Works, at one time the largest chemical manufacturer in the world closed its plant to the east of Port Dundas in 1964. The M8 motorway was constructed immediately to the south, over the route of the Monkland Canal, in the 1970s, obstructing access to the canal basin. Early in the 21st century, the Forth and Clyde Canal was restored as a leisure attraction, and the canal and warehouses at Port Dundas were restored as apartments.

Port Dundas Grain Distillery

The area is the site of a former large Scotch Grain distillery, which produced 39 million litres of spirit each year on a site until being closed in 2010. Originally there were two distilleries in the locality, the first was established in 1811 by Daniel McFarlane. Two years later the second one was established by Brown, Gourlie & Co. During 1845 Coffey Stills for the manufacture of Grain whisky were installed in both distilleries. Both distilleries merged in the 1860s and later became part of the

Distillers Company The Distillers Company Limited was a leading Scottish drinks and pharmaceutical company and, at one time, a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was taken over by Guinness & Co. (now part of Diageo) in 1986 in a transaction which was later f ...

in 1877. They were destroyed by fire in 1903 but were rebuilt and reopened in 1913, and rebuilt again in 1916 after being severely damaged by another fire. The distillery was closed for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. A large modernisation programme was undertaken during the 1970s, when a new grain intake, spirit store, still house, boiler house and dark grains plant were opened. The Port Dundas Grain Distillery and adjacent Dundashill

Cooperage A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made ...

, which manufactured

Hogshead A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alco ...

casks and dates back to 1770, are currently owned by

Diageo Diageo plc () is a multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweichow Moutai of China in 201 ...

, and the distillery's large Flue gas stack dominates the skyline of North Glasgow. It produced Grain whisky used in the Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell's,

Black & White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

Vat 69 Vat 69 is a blended Scotch whisky created by William Sanderson & Son Limited of South Queensferry, Scotland, now part of Diageo. History William Sanderson was born in Leith, Scotland January 27, 1839. He started an apprenticeship with wine a ...

, Haig and

White Horse A white horse is born predominantly white and stays white throughout its life. A white horse has mostly pink skin under its hair coat, and may have brown, blue, or hazel eyes. "True white" horses, especially those that carry one of the dominant ...

blended whisky brands owned by Diageo. On 1 July 2009, Diageo announced the closure of the Port Dundas distillery, with all production shifting to the company's other Scottish Grain distillery at Cameron Bridge, as well as the North British Distillery in Gorgie, Edinburgh, which is jointly owned by Diageo and

The Edrington Group Edrington (legally The Edrington Group Ltd.) is a privately owned international spirits company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It produces single malts The Macallan, Highland Park, The Glenrothes, Naked Malt and The Famous Grouse blended Sco ...

References

External links

Glasgow's Canals Unlocked
tourism publication by Scottish Canals {{coord, 55, 52, 23.87, N, 4, 15, 10.97, W, display=title Areas of Glasgow Canals in Scotland Business parks of Scotland Industry in Scotland Industrial parks in the United Kingdom Economy of Glasgow