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Strone memories

Here are memories of Strone and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Strone or a Strone photo.

Strone Youth Hostel

I have fond memories of Strone. My mother was the warden at the SYHA hostel at Strone which was Dunselma on the hill. Strone Primary was my first school. I remember the US floating docks and the protesters who stayed at the hostel. They used to protest on the pier at Sandbank and rowed out to the submarines when they came into the dock. I also remember Strone House. When we went to Glasgow we had to walk down the hill to get the ferry at Blairgowrie as the Strone pier had closed.

From 1940 to 1957

There may be someone who remembers from Strone School, we had some good times in the Second World War, we did not how bad things were in Europe. It was the time we had the RN and the subs in the Holy Loch and the Wrens, they spoiled us with some types of food we could not get in the war. Some of us boys loved when the NAAFI boat came in and we wanted the blood oranges. Sometimes we would go down Strone pier to the shed at the end of the pier and lift off one of panels of the shed and put a stick into the sugar bags and let the suger into a tin can, then we got apples from someone's garden and then we would light a fire and melt the suger and make toffee apples. When the evacuues came we did not like them, they did not speak the way we did. We went to school in the mornings and they went in the... Read more

Memories of Argyll

My Scottish Home

The Promenade c1955
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I'm a navy brat ... I lived on the promenade in 1963 and used to watch the Polaris submarines come down the river and go into Holy Lock and tie up to the  submarine tenders and dry docks for repairs. I was a young boy at the time and attended Scottish public schools. I loved this country, this town and this magical place of submarines, ships and ferrys, lighthouses and fog horns.  There used to be a dinghy rental business and I worked there awhile, in the summer. I enjoyed myself immeasurably. I had my first girlfriend here, a beautiful blonde-headed Scottish lass. I could forget my name easier than I could forget the memories made here, not that I want to forget either. May God and good friends be wherever you go, because I know they are in Kirn. Talk to you later!

Formative Years in Kirn

My lifetime in Kirn ran from birth in 1948 until I left the area in 1968 to become a policeman in Newcastle upon Tyne. My family lived in Argyll Terrace (No. 8). I worked with George Fraser the grocer for at least seven years and spent summers with Reg Brooks and Hugh McLachlan at Kirn Lido, pushing boats out for 5 pounds a week and loving every minute. I used to catch the ropes at the pier for 2/6 a time and delivered papers for Mrs. Keir. Attended Kirn Primary and Dunoon Grammar and spent two years in the Dunoon Branch of the Bank of Scotland before leaving for Newcastle. Spent 30 years in the the Police in Newcastle and retired in 1998. Moved to live in Cyprus in January 2007 and love it.
Bestest memories of Kirn: Kirn Scouts, Gordon Trapp was "Skip" and Pete Johnstone was his 2nd. in charge, McCubbin Shield Competitions at Invereck, being on my own in my kayak on the Clyde very late at... Read more

Happy Days

I was just reading 'Formative years in Kirn'. Yes they were good. I used to fish off Kirn pier for cat fish for Mrs Drovandi's cat and in exchange she would give me an ice cube. I remember Reggie Brooks and the boats - We used to live in Borland Park. Then moved up to Argyle Terrace. I remember Edith McPhail, Jeanette Rankin, Dorcas Branches. Playing jump rope - playing ball on the nursery wall that was at the end of Argyle Terrace. Pickling brambles and rasperries in the spinney, and practically living on the beach. Going home to bring my mother a pot of tea. Ross's Dairy had the best icecream. Patsy Bravender used to live behind Drovandi's, they had an outside faucet and we used to climb the wall to watch him wash his face in the morning. Miss McGougin's sweet shop after going to St Margaret's church on a Sunday morning. I had a small job in Lees grocery shop closing the shutters before 5 pm. I... Read more

MacCubban Shield

Lots of memories of the MacCubban Shield Competitions with the Sandbank Troup - we won it several years in a row in the early/mid 60's - also the scout camps at Rashfield and farther away at Benderloch. The tasks we undertook such as making rope bridges over the river at Rashfield etc. - kids would never be allowed to do this -- H&S would kill this sort of activity off. I remember getting dropped of at Loch Striven and then hiking back to Clachaig carrying tents - food etc. all to get a badge to sew on your shirt. Being in the Sandbank Boy Scouts Hut when it was announced that JFK had been assasinated and all of the American boys in the troup being hurriedly picked up by worried parents. Helping Sandy with the boat hire at Port Riddel - taking out the Lydia full of holidaymakers for trips to the Cloch Lighthouse etc - watched the AKKA sink after it hit the Gantocks Rock. Poaching salmon... Read more

Summer Holidays

My Grandfather was the doctor for Kilcreggan from 1953 -1970.He and my grandmother lived at Kenilworth which was on the Shore Road.He was called John Campbell Miller.Our family holidayed there every year during the 1960s. We used to arrive on the morning boat from Gourock.We spent 2 weeks there every Easter and 1 month there every Summer.TutTut was a favourite of ours.Another favourite
was the Italian Icecream shop called Rossi's

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