Hunters Quay ( gd, Camas Rainich) is a village, on the

Cowal Cowal ( gd, Còmhghall) is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, that extends into the Firth of Clyde. The northern part of the peninsula is covered by the Argyll Forest Park managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. The Arroch ...

peninsula in

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

. Situated between

Kirn Kirn is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land. Kirn is a middle centre serving an area on the Nahe and in the Hunsrück. Geography Location Kirn lies in a la ...

to the south and

Ardnadam Ardnadam ( gd, Àird nan Damh) is a village on the Holy Loch on the Cowal peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located northwest of Hunters Quay and east of Sandbank, and sits across the loch from Kilmun. History "Ardnadam village is of ...

to the north, Hunters Quay is the main base of

Western Ferries Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd (also known as Western Ferries) is a private ferry company with its headquarters in Hunters Quay, Scotland. It currently operates on the Firth of Clyde running a year-round, high-frequency vehicle carrying service be ...

, operating between Hunters Quay and McInroy's Point.

Structures

Esplanade

Hunters Quay's esplanade was built in 1880, protected by a breast wall, along the north shore of Balgay Bay at a cost of £500.''Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Graphic and Accurate Description of Every Place in Scotland''
Frances Hindes Groome (1901), p. 444

Victoria Bridge

Spanning Balgay Bay, Victoria Bridge was built in 1878.

Royal Marine Hotel

The current building was built in 1890. This and the previous building was, between 1872 and the 1950s, the home of the

Royal Clyde Yacht Club Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

, which was founded in 1856.

Hafton House

Built in 1815 for James Hunter.

Villas

In the mid 19th century, the principal villas at Hunters Quay were ''Claver House'' (Mr Miller), ''Linnwood'' (Mr Somerville), ''Rock Hill'' (Capt. Littlejohn), ''Whinhill'' (Mrs Ross), ''Woodside'' (Mr Bell) and Craigend (Mr Bryson).
Colegate's Guide to Dunoon, Kirn, and Hunter's Quay'' (Second edition)
- John Colegate (1868), page 28

1908 Summer Olympic Games

The 12-metre class yacht race in the 1908 London Olympic Games took place at Hunters Quay. Most of the sailing took place on the Solent, but only two boats entered the 12-metre class: ''Mouchette'' from the Royal Liverpool Yacht Club and ''Hera'' from the Royal Clyde Yacht Club. They were allowed to race on the Clyde for convenience. The course was twice round a lap of the Clyde, starting and finishing at Hunters Quay. Thomas C. Glen-Coats' ''Hera'' won.

Jim Crow Rock – Puffin Rock

"Jim Crow" (earlier "''The'' Jim Crow"), a pointed

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is glacially deposited rock differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundre ...

rock lying horizontally on the beach, was known as the "Jim Crow Stone" by 1864, and by 1904 was painted with a face. There have been various suggestions for the inspiration behind the name and design: the Jim Crow character featured in Jump Jim Crow, a song and dance popularised in 1832 by the American minstrel show performer Thomas D. Rice; local stories suggest it could have been the name of the owner of a nearby builders’/joiners yard; a

jackdaw Jackdaws are two species of bird in the genus ''Coloeus'' closely related to, but generally smaller than, the crows and ravens (''Corvus''). ''Coloeus'' is sometimes treated as a subgenus of ''Corvus'', including by the IUCN.Madge & Burn (1994) ...

hich has a black beak but not a red mouth or the later

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

which were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Another suggestion is that it was named after the line "So they canonized him by the name of Jim Crow!" in the 1837 poem '' The Jackdaw of Rheims''.
text online
with "Jim Crow". Jim Crow Stone (geograph 6980526)

Due to concerns about racism the rock was painted over a number of times, but repeatedly returned to its original state. In 2017 Neville Lawrence, father of

Stephen Lawrence Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

, saw the rock when he was on holiday in the area, and described it as saddening and disappointing, an uncomfortable reminder of division. It later attracted

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...

protests, and was painted black. In community efforts to find a way forward, a competition was held for young people to propose a unifying design. The winning design was by a

Dunoon Grammar School Dunoon Grammar School is a secondary school in Dunoon, Cowal Peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It was founded in 1641. It is currently a non-denominational comprehensive school which covers all stages from S1 to S6 (ages 12–18). Building ...

pupil, who with other pupils re-painted the rock in 2021 as a puffin.Polly Bartlett
"Controversial ‘Jim Crow stone’ transformed into proud Puffin Rock"
STV News, 18 October 2021, retrieved and archived 22 October 2021.

Gallery

File:2008-08 - Plum Island and Cowal Games 533.jpg, A view of the Holy Loch, looking northwest towards Kilmun. File:Hunters Quay - geograph.org.uk - 430081.jpg, The

Royal Marine Hotel The Royal Marine Hotel is a hotel located on Marine Parade in Hunters Quay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is a Category B listed building, opened in 1890 after the original 1856 building, named Marine Hotel, was gutted by fire. Its architect wa ...

is the half-timbered building. File:Hunters Quay from Cloch Point.jpg, Hunters Quay viewed from Cloch Point. File:Hunter's Quay - geograph.org.uk - 837885.jpg, A Western Ferries ferry approaching the quay.

References

{{purge Villages in Cowal Ports and harbours of Scotland Olympic sailing venues Venues of the 1908 Summer Olympics Firth of Clyde Highlands and Islands of Scotland Glacial erratics of Great Britain