Bodinbo Island is an islet in the

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

waters of the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

close to the old ferry slipway at Erskine. Before the dyke or training wall was built the rocky Bodinbo Island was a prominent feature in the river hereabouts and a hazard to shipping, especially sailing craft in the dark, during foggy weather, flood conditions and in high winds. On

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps the name has been transliterated to Bottombow Island and Boden Boo is the spelling variant used for the nearby woodland plantation.

Islands in the River Clyde

Islands of the River Clyde, rather than sand or mud banks only exposed at low water, once included in order, working upstream towards Glasgow :- Inchgreen in

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

, Bodinbo, Newshot, Ron, Sand Inch, King's Inch, Buck Inch,

White Inch White Inch was an island lying in the estuary, estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Glasgow in the Parish of Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Due to the deliberate disposal of dredged material from the Clyde, it became physically part of th ...

and Water Inch. Green Inch or Milton Island is located at the old Dumbuck Ford near

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

. Colin's Isle once sat in the waters of the Cart near its confluence with the River Clyde. The name 'Inch' is Scots deriving from the Gaelic 'Innis', an island. The name 'Ron' in Scots refers to a thicket of hawthorns or rose briers, an area of stunted and crowded woodland. Shot or variants was an ancient unit for a division of land or alternatively a projecting area of land, a peninsula. A 'Shot' also has the meaning of a place from which fishing-nets were cast and in salmon fishing, a part of the river from which nets were cast. The island has a possible fishing weir remnant built across the inner lagoon.

Bodinbo Island

The name 'Bodinbo' is recorded on

Timothy Pont Reverend Timothy Pont () was a Scottish minister, cartographer and topographer. He was the first to produce a detailed map of Scotland. Pont's maps are among the earliest surviving to show a European country in minute detail, from an actual surve ...

's early 17th century map and also on Joan Blaeu's 1662 maps 'Præfectura Renfroana' and 'Levinia Vicecomitatus' that are derived from Pont's work. The island may have been included and named on these maps due to its significance as a hazard to shipping. John Ainslie's map of 1800 shows the bow-shaped or elipsical island within the flow of the river prior to the construction of the training dike that was built circa 1857 to reduce the width of the river with a view to increasing the water current's scouring of the river bed, making it deeper and less prone to silting up. The Erskine Ferry was operational by this date however at this time it ran from Donald's Quay that lay slightly further downstream. The old bank of the River Clyde in this area runs close to the Clyde Coastal Path and is lined with trees. The name may be Scots as both 'Bod' and 'Bo' in place-names mean a sunken rock or as a term for small low-lying rocks on the shoreline. The island was originally bow shaped prior to the silting up of the area behind the training dike. The OS Name Book gives the "''Property Plan Robinson's Chart of R.

iver Iver is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central nucleated village, clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park and the hamlets o ...

Clyde. Hugh Paton. Ferry House''" as the authority for the name 'Bottombow'. The surface area of the island is given as 0.768 of an acre or 0.31 of a hectare and the maximum height above high water mark is circa 3m or 9 ft. An 'Erskine Harbour' is marked on some maps and this has led to a degree of confusion in that the training dike, island and old river course has on occasion been mistakenly identified as a harbour and jetty.

Wildlife

The area is important for its extensive reed beds and diversity of flora. The island's summit lies well above the high water mark and carries typical land based plants such as hawthorn (

Crataegus monogyna ''Crataegus monogyna'', known as common hawthorn, whitethorn, one-seed hawthorn, or single-seeded hawthorn, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It grows to about tall, producing plant sexuality, hermaphrodite flowers i ...

) shrubs. Brackish water plants dominate the open water saltings and the surrounding silt deposits. Newshot Nature Reserve lies near by on the banks of the River Clyde facing the old Island of that name.

References

;Notes ;Sources *Moore, John (2017). ''The Clyde. Mapping the River''. Edinburgh : Birlinn Ltd..

External links

Video footage of Bodinbo Island {{DEFAULTSORT:Bodinbo Island Renfrewshire River islands of Scotland Islands of the Clyde Landforms of Renfrewshire River Clyde Clyde Clyde Clyde Firth of Clyde Erskine, Renfrewshire

Islands in the River Clyde

Bodinbo Island

Wildlife

See also

References

External links