Memory Lane

Paid a nostalgic trip to Denny Tank in Dumbarton today. This is the oldest towing test tank in the world built in 1882 by Denny brothers to improve ship design before building in their ship yards and was the first privately owned Tank in the world the others were military establishments. Denny built ships include the Cutty Sark, Liptons Shamrock yacht, prefabricated ferries which were transported to South America and Africa then reassembled . Denny ferries crossed the Golden Horn in Istanbul transporting commuters right up until 2000, The first free flying helicopter was built and tested in the Denny yard, in short they were innovators. The yards disappeared in the 1960s, the test tank survived for a number of years as a test facility narrowly missing demolition before being taken over by the local authority as a training centre and subsequently came under the management of the Scottish Maritime Museum. For those interested in Naval Architecture, Ship Building orSocial History this is a little gem with a small but very pleasant cafe.