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The distillery was built for Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland), on the site of the shipyard of Archibald McMillan & Son. That shipyard became derelict after being acquired by Shipbuilding Securities, Ltd. Railway tracks – Link – that had once linked the shipyard to a goods yard continued to serve the distillery; as of 2017, parts of those tracks remain visible on Castle Street and in an adjacent car park.

The grain distillery, which was said to be the largest in Europe, was officially opened on Wednesday the 28th of September 1938 by Lord (George) Nigel Douglas Hamilton, Commissioner for Special Areas in Scotland. This was the day after the liner Queen Elizabeth had been launched from John Brown's shipyard at Clydebank; that event would overshadow, to some extent, the opening of the distillery, but it would also provide some points of comparison, which were made during the building's opening ceremony. For example, the distillery was constructed on about 2500 piles, each of which supported a weight of about 30 tons; the total weight of the building was therefore about 75,000 tons, which, as pointed out on the day, was about the same as the total dead weight of the "Queen Elizabeth".

Construction had taken about a year. The building contained about 2 million bricks, 10,000 cubic yards of reinforced concrete, and 3,000 tons of steel. The boiler could generate about 1000 horse-power, as well as evaporating 50,000 lbs of water per hour. The total storage capacity of the tanks in the building was about 1 million gallons. The first warehouse constructed had a capacity of 1,700,000 gallons, a taxable content of about £6,800,000. As was pointed out on the day of opening, the excise duty on that quantity of spirits would be about sufficient to pay for a battleship.

According to the book "The Ballantine's Story" (cited below), the bricks were red Accrington-tile, and preparations for war had been given priority over construction on the site, delaying the completion of the building work.

The opening ceremony itself was to have been held in Dumbarton's Burgh Hall, but that building had been commandeered at the last minute for what were tersely described as "air raid precaution purposes" (what had happened was that the Town Council's A.R.P. Subcommittee had decided, at a meeting held at 9pm on Monday the 26th, that there was an urgent need for them to take over the arrangements for supplying civilian gas masks; they therefore sent, at 3:30 on Tuesday morning, a fleet of motor lorries to the national gas mask supply centre in Galashiels; when the lorries returned with the packaged parts, at 5:30 on the evening of Tuesday the 27th, almost 100 volunteers set to work separating these parts and assembling the respirators; they did so on tables set out for that purpose in the Burgh Hall, and that work was still going on, with additional volunteers, when the distillery opened on Wednesday the 28th). At short notice, sufficient space was found for the opening ceremony in a large storage building in the distillery complex itself. Harry C Hatch, Chairman of the firm, presided and welcomed the guests, Lord Nigel Douglas Hamilton performed the opening ceremony, and Provost James Campbell represented Dumbarton Town Council.

The original Hiram Walker company had been founded by a man of that name in Ontario in 1858, and it remained in his family until it was acquired by Harry C Hatch and his business associates in December 1926; they took charge in January 1927. More or less the same group of business interests had already acquired the distillery firm of Gooderham & Worts, Ltd, Ontario, in 1923. That firm had been founded in 1832, and it was said to be the oldest distillery in Canada. The two firms merged in 1927, and, in 1930, the combined company acquired a 60 percent stake in the Stirling Bonding Company, and J & G Stoddard, Blenders and Exporters. In 1936, George Ballantine & Son was added to their blending interests. In 1933, with the impending repeal of Prohibition in the United States, the company had decided to entered the market there in a big way: at Peoria, Illinois, the company had built what Hatch claimed was "the largest and most modern distillery in the whole world".

Hatch also explained, in his speech during the opening ceremony, that it was the demand for Scotch Whisky in the United States that had made the building of a distillery at Dumbarton a tempting and practical venture. He drew a distinction between those distilleries that blend whisky, and those that produce only the basic grain whisky with which the malts are blended; he then noted a perceived scarcity of grain whisky in Scotland. The product of the Dumbarton plant would be made available to those blenders who cared to use it.

Almost all of the material used to construct the buildings was from Britain: the exceptions included parts of the grain conveying plant, which could not be obtained in this country, as well as the reinforcing bars and about 60 tons of plate steel, which were purchased abroad because the British steel industry was unable to supply them (presumably because priority was given to preparations for war).

At the time of the official opening, war preparations were very much on people's minds: the last-minute change of venue caused by the urgent assembling of gas mask respirators has already been mentioned. Around the same time, trenches would be dug in nearby Levengrove Park, in the Cunningham Graham Memorial Park, and elsewhere; these trenches would then be covered over to provide bomb shelters. The speeches made during the official opening alluded to the worrying situation in Europe, and it was stated that the building and its machinery would be made available for war purposes, should the need arise. On a more positive note, it was pointed out that the recent opening of an Aircraft Factory, coupled with the opening of this distillery, had added some diversity to the industries in Dumbarton; this diversity would benefit the town, especially if any one of those industries later went into decline. (The reference made there was to the Blackburn Aircraft Factory, which was near Dumbarton Rock; construction of that factory began in 1937; the site was later occupied by Allied Distillers, and, still later, by housing, built in 2016–2017).

Subsequent developments at the distillery down to about 1990 are described in the book "The Ballantine's Story", cited below; the book also discusses the blending plant that was later built at Kilmalid (NS39767750), and it details the corporate mergers and restructuring that took place throughout the decades, as well as the changing fortunes of the whisky industry in Scotland.

See Link for more on the Kilmalid bottling and blending plant.

Most of the distillery complex here in Dumbarton had been demolished by 2007, but a single tall brick tower remained long afterwards; its demolition was delayed when a planned housing development stalled. The remaining tower was viewed by many as an eyesore; also, on more than one occasion, newspaper accounts appeared about children who had entered the building and who were spotted in precarious positions on the upper floors. However, work on the site eventually resumed: by January 2017, that last brick tower was being torn down, briefly exposing to view the reinforcing steel girders within the structure.

A housing development, by Cullross Ltd and Dunbritton Housing, was planned for the site: a "mixed use development comprising 196 flats and terraced houses"; the proposed development also includes offices, and a riverside path that would lead from Riverside Lane (behind the shops on the High Street) to Castle Road.

References:

▪ "The Lennox Herald" (newspaper): issue of 1st October 1938, for details of the building and for an account of the opening ceremony and speeches.
▪ "The Glasgow Herald" (newspaper): page 7 of the edition for Thursday 29th September 1938. The coverage there is less detailed than in the Lennox Herald article just cited, but it is accessible online: Link
▪ "The Ballantine's Story" (book by Jonathan Mantle, 1991): this includes later developments, down to the time of writing.

This description covers a subset of West Dumbartonshire's core paths (49—53 inclusive and 157) that, when taken together, make up a continuous path (49 + 50 + 52 + 53) along or near the eastern bank of the River Leven ( Link ), beginning at the Lion's Gate at Kilmalid, and ending at Dumbarton Rock(*). Two shorter paths (51 and 157) branch off from the riverside path. Others paths branch off from it near the SUDS pond at Lomondgate ( Link ); these are also included here, although they are not core paths.

(*) Note that, as of mid-2018, core path 53 stops at the east end of Riverside Lane, but it is intended that it eventually be extended to become a riverside walkway to Dumbarton Rock.

See Link (PDF, 1.3MB, at the West Dunbartonshire Council website) for a visual index to all of these paths. Summary descriptions (where "BMIE" = Broadmeadow Industrial Estate and "CP" = Core Path):

CP 49 (741m): Beside the Murroch Burn; from the Lion's Gate to the Blue Bridge.
CP 50 (1019m): Heads south (beside a golf course) from the Blue Bridge to NW corner of BMIE.
CP 51 (440m): Branches off eastwards from CP 50; leads to Overburn Avenue.
CP 52 (849m): Heads south from NW corner of BMIE to Dumbarton Bridge.
CP 157 (84m): A short path branching off east from CP 52; leads to Poplar Road.
CP 53 (476m+): From Dumbarton Bridge to Riverside Lane (and, later, to Dumbarton Rock).

ITS COURSE:

The River Leven, in West Dunbartonshire, is just under 12 km (7.5 miles) in length¹. It flows from Loch Lomond, of which it is the only outlet, to the River Clyde. On the way, its meanders enclose two named points: Cordale Point and Dalquhurn Point (see Link and Link respectively). Among the settlements alongside the river are Balloch, Jamestown, Bonhill, Alexandria, Renton and Dumbarton.

Of rivers that are navigable or nearly so, the Leven, when in full flow, is one of Scotland's fastest².

THE NAME:

According to contemporary place-name scholarship³, the name of the River Leven is derived from a Celtic word for "elm" (modern Gaelic "leamhan"). The surrounding area was long known as the Lennox (earlier "Levenax", from a Gaelic word similar to "leamhnachd"), which is simply a derivative of the river's name, and is therefore from the same root⁴. The names Leven and Lennox are related to that of the Lemannonian Gulf⁵, situated somewhere nearby, that was listed by Ptolemy in his "Geography" (second century AD).

(At the time of writing, some web pages maintain that the name of the River Leven means "smooth stream"; however, that explanation is now very much out of date⁶.)

EARLS OF LENNOX:

During the 13th and 14th centuries, certain charters⁷ were made at Balloch by the Earls of Lennox. Traces of an old castle, presumably that of the earls, can be seen close to the source of the River Leven, in Balloch, in the form of a mound with a surrounding ditch; see Link for pictures and Link at Canmore for archaeological details. As noted at the latter link, stones from the old castle are said to have been incorporated into the modern Balloch Castle (not a castle, but a 19th-century castellated house), though not in a noticeable way.

FISHING:

The River Leven receives early mention in connection with fishing; for example, a 1330 charter⁸ mentions the "yare of Linbren" (a yare is a kind of fish-trap) and its fishing rights. Angling still takes place on the river. The name "Linbren", of the old charter, survives: a part of the River is now called NS3980 : Linnbrane Hole. Anglers have names for many parts of the river: see the link just given for a partial list.

INDUSTRIES:

From the establishment of the first bleachfield beside the River Leven in 1715, works related to the textile industry would spring up along the length of the river. These developments are set out in some detail at Link (on the Vale of Leven website). Though the numerous works are now gone, remnants of them can still be seen in the form of lades, by means of which water was diverted through these industrial sites. Old maps reveal the former presence of railway tracks on the west bank of the river, between Dalquhurn and the Cordale; a small locomotive nicknamed the Pug used to travel along them.

Shipbuilding would become very much associated with the lower reaches of the River Leven. Also worthy of note are the glassworks whose cones came to dominate Dumbarton's skyline from about 1777; the works stood in roughly the area now occupied by NS3975 : Dumbarton Health Centre.

BARRAGE, CANAL PLANS, AND CROSSINGS:

Varying depth aside, the river is not now navigable: a barrage, which was officially opened⁹ in 1971, crosses it at Balloch. In the 1840s, proposals¹⁰ for a canal running alongside the river came to nothing, as did similar ideas in c.2008.

As of 2021, the current and recent crossings of the river, from source to Clyde, are as follows: two road bridges at Balloch; the above-mentioned barrage, though only technically, given that its walkway is not accessible to the public; the Stuckie Bridge — Link —, originally a railway viaduct; the Bonhill Bridge — Link —, which is close to the site of its removed predecessor; the Black Bridge — Link —, removed in late 2014, leaving only its piers; Renton Bridge — Link —, closed for several weeks in late 2021 for repairs; the Blue Bridge — Link —, carrying the A82 over the river; a railway viaduct at Dalreoch; NS3975 : The Artizan Bridge, opened in 1974; and Dumbarton Bridge — Link —, built in 1765, but not opened to traffic until 1768 on account of problems caused by soft underlying material (these would later affect the Woodyard, a shipyard at what is now Posties Park).

See Link (at the Vale of Leven website) for more information about all of the bridges.

FROZEN:

As of 2021, the River Leven has not frozen over in living memory. However, Dr I.M.M.Macphail, in his book "Lennox Lore" (1987), records a great frost during the winter of 1434-35, in the latter part of which "people could and did walk over the River Leven". John Mitchell cites this, and other examples¹¹ from 1607, 1795 and 1802, "when safe passage on foot across the frozen Leven is known to have been achieved".

PARISHES:

The River Leven formed the boundary of several parishes, including Cardross and Renton on the west, and Bonhill and Dumbarton on the east. Evidence that Cardross Parish anciently extended as far as the Leven can be seen in Levengrove Park, in the form of the remains — Link — of St Serf's, which was an early Cardross parish church.

ROBERT THE BRUCE:

Somewhere on the land lying on the west bank of the lower part of the Leven, between present-day Renton and Dalreoch, Robert the Bruce had a residence (a hunting lodge, in modern terms) where he spent his final years. The precise site is (as of 2021) unknown, and opinions on the likely location vary, but the residence may have been somewhere in the vicinity of the site that would later be known as Mains of Cardross; see Link for a more detailed discussion. The king is commemorated by a flagstaff (NS3875 : Bruce's Flagstaff) at Brucehill in Dumbarton (on the basis of an earlier belief that the king's dwelling was at adjacent Castlehill), and by a NS3975 : Plaque beside the ruins of St Serf's church (the church was mentioned above, in the section "Parishes").

ECOLOGY:

The lower reaches of the river feature what information panels on the western bank describe as a "valuable swamp habitat", often frequented by birds. According to those panels, the swamp on the western side is "dominated by Reed Canary-grass with Water Sedge, Bottle Sedge and Water Horsetail", while that on the other side, "heavily influenced by the tidal brackish conditions at this point", includes "Reedmace, Grey Club Rush, Reed Canary-grass and Sea Club Rush".

FLOODING, DEFENCES, AND THE LANDS OF MURROCH:

In the early burgh records of Dumbarton, there is a preoccupation with the "waterworks", a term then used to refer to defences built to protect the town of Dumbarton from flooding by the River Leven. One such work, the Bishop's Water-gang, was built in the early 16th century, but fell into disrepair later that century. As a result, an area, colloquially called "the Drowned Lands", and corresponding roughly to what is now the site of Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, would be flooded twice a day. Local author Tobias Smollett recalled that in his schooldays (in the 1730s) he could feel the presence of cobbles underfoot when paddling in the water, though it is likely that he and his schoolmates were imagining more to be underwater than was really the case. One effect was that the College Bow — Link — (a stone arch that is a remnant of the Collegiate Church) was left standing oddly isolated beside the tidal area (note that the Bow has been moved since then). The problems with flooding would not permanently be resolved there¹² until the 1850s, with the coming of the railway. See NS3975 : View to Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, where the former twice-daily flooding and some related uses of the land are described in more detail, with references.

Above what is now the Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, on the other side of a golf course, the Murroch Burn flows into the River Leven close to the eastern side of the Blue Bridge (a road bridge on the A82). Although the town at the lower end of the river is called Dumbarton, that name had originally referred specifically to Dumbarton Rock; much of the land on which the town would be built was formerly "the lands of Murroch"¹³. That name suggests a connection with the Gaelic "morbhach", meaning "land prone to sea-flooding", which would at least be appropriate: see Link (on the Murroch Burn) for further discussion.

Notes:

(1) "just under 12 km (7.5 miles)" — this is the length as measured along the course of the river. It differs from the distance quoted by some other online sources, but it was determined by the author of this shared description by means of measurements carried out on satellite imagery. The straight-line distance from end to end is about 8 km (5 miles).

(2) "At peak flow from the loch the Leven is understandably one of the fastest rivers in Scotland and provides a significant discharge of fresh water into the Inner Clyde Estuary": John Mitchell in "Loch Lomondside" (New Naturalist Series, 2001), page 12.

(3) See page 19 of W.J.Watson's "The Celtic Place-names of Scotland" (2004 edition; the book was originally published in 1926), and page 228 of W.F.H. Nicolaisen's "Scottish Place-names" (2001 edition).

(4) See page 119 of Watson's book cited in the previous note.

(5) The "Lemannonian Gulf" (Lemannonios Kolpos) can be seen listed, in Greek, as the first line of page 83 — Link — of the Karl Müller edition (1883) of Ptolemy's "Geography". On the kinship of the form "Lemannonios" to the later names Leven and Lennox, see, again, page 119 of Watson, op. cit.

(6) The obsolete explanation of the name Leven, as meaning "smooth", appeared on page 45 of the first volume of Chalmers' "Caledonia" (1807), in a footnote to a list of names of "Rivers, Rivulets and Waters". Presumably the name was then thought to be related to the Gaelic word "lìomh". However, this is phonetically implausible; the early attested forms of the river's name are "Levyne" (1238) and similar spellings (the methodology of modern place-name studies places great emphasis on the importance of gathering the earliest available written forms of place-names and using those as the starting point).

Probably on the authority of Chalmers' book, page XIII of the preface of the Lennox Cartulary (1833) would present the same idea, stating that the name of the River Leven means "smooth stream".

A certain old poem by Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh, "Saor do leannán a Leamhain" — Link —, thought to have been composed around 1200, gives a fanciful explanation for the name of the River Leven, basing it on a personal name.

(7) In the Lennox Cartulary (properly the "Cartularium Comitatus de Levenax", Maitland Club Edition, 1833), see, for example, the charter on page 13, dated 1238 "appud Bellach"; one on page 59, dated 1373 "apud Bellach"; and another on page 86, dated 1274, "apud Bellach". Towards the end of the 14th century, the earls would relocate to a new castle not far away, at the southern end of the isle of Inchmurrin in Loch Lomond; see Link at Canmore for details.

(8) The 1330 charter mentioned here begins on page 17 of the Lennox Cartulary; the last few words of the charter give the year. Similar charters mentioning the yare of Linnbrane (whose spelling varies greatly) can be found in a list of Paisley charters: specifically, the "Registrum Monasterii de Passelet" (1832); for the relevant charters, see that book's own index of place-names and personal names.

(9) "The Loch Lomond Water Scheme, which involved controlling the natural discharge from the loch by means of a barrage across the River Leven, was officially opened on 29 June 1971": John Mitchell, "Loch Lomondside", page 92.

(10) Canal plans in the 1840s: at Link (which shows only a small part of the entire plan), the canal's proposed course appears as a brown line crossing the river. The plan is cited there in more detail.

(11) Pages 48-49 of John Mitchell's "Loch Lomondside" (2001). In the same account, he mentions that ice covered the Leven from bank to bank in February 1895, but that it was "not of sufficient thickness ... to tempt even the foolhardy".

(12) It should be added that the River Leven does, to this day, occasionally burst its banks in various places; for just a few examples, see NS3975 : Flooding at Riverside Lane / NS3981 : Flooded footpath beside the River Leven / NS3977 : Cycle path crossing flooded field. In the lower reaches of the Leven, this can occur when the river, in full flow, is met by an incoming high tide or a storm surge; by about 2019, car parks at Riverside Lane in Dumbarton had LED signs to warn of the possibility or likelihood of flooding at given times. However, as one of the example pictures illustrates, the river can also flood well above the point where it ceases to be tidal.

(13) Dr I.M.M. MacPhail, in his book "Dumbarton through the Centuries" (1972), discusses the foundation charter of the Burgh of Dumbarton, which was "sealed by Alexander II on July 8, 1222"; he goes on to observe that "in three other charters, in 1223, 1226 and 1230, Alexander gave to the newly-founded burgh the lands of Murroch (equivalent to almost the whole of the present parish of Dumbarton) and, in addition, extensive trading privileges".