Auchmountain Springs.

A Memory of Greenock.

As a boy in the 1930s and 1940s I often visited Auchmountain Glen. It was a fascinating place with a pleasant walk and many plants and flowers together with statues and even some ships' figureheads. There was a clubhouse which was used by the Auchmountain Boys. These were the local men who created and looked after the glen as part of their leisure activity, especially during the depression of the 1930s. They all went off to the Second World War. Sadly a bomb hit the glen during the war and spoiled the lovely place. There were two springs where people could come and drink the spring water. Some brought bottles and filled them from the spring. I remember there was a little poem by No.2 Spring inviting people to drink.

Erected in this Bonnie Glen
By self-denying working men
To meet the wants of passers-by
Who happened to be unco dry

'Tis ever free to all wha pass
The Masher, or the Country Lass
Can hither draw too, Number two
And taste the real Auchmountain Dew

Now in my eighties I still remember with affection my boyhood in Greenock and time spent in and passing through Auchmountain Glen and some of the men who fiercely guarded it from the vandals of the day.

It is said that the Glen got its name from the ship 'Auchmountain' which was said to have exploded at anchor in the River Clyde, a fairly long way off. As a result the ship's bell landed in the Glen, hence the name. However, I cannot vouch for the veracity of this story.