Dumbarton
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a castle-crowned rock rising sheer from the north shore of the Clyde, eleven miles northwest of Glasgow. When Scotland and England united, this castle was one of four Scottish fortifications which, by the act of union, must be maintained. It is a position of some strength. Before the day of gunpowder it was impregnable, and was considered the key to the Highlands. Queen Mary was detained here when a child. She was making her way to Dumbarton when the men of Glasgow sallied out and defeated her at the battle of Langside. The rock is one of the few spots where the genuine Scotch thistle grows wild. A huge two-handed sword said to have belonged to William Wallace is kept in the castle. The summit of the rock commands an extensive view of the Firth of Clyde, the shipping, the green shores, the spires of Glasgow and the mountains of western Scotland. The rock itself is a striking object and cannot fail to attract the eye of the traveler. The town of Dumbarton, which contains the celebrated castle above referred to, is a well known seaport. The building of iron steamships is its most important industry. Dumbarton is also the name of a county of Scotland bounded by Perthshire on the north, Stirling and Lanark on the east, the Clyde on the south, and Argyll and Loch Long on the west. Its area is 241 square miles. Population, 98,014. See Clyde Dum-dum Bullet, a bullet with a soft spot at the point. A steel bullet, or a lead bullet with a hard tip of steel or copper, cuts its way through a bone, leaving a hole as neat as though it were made by an auger. Such a wound renders a soldier unfit for duty, but, with ordinary care, is not dangerous. A bullet with an extra soft point, on the contrary, flattens slightly on striking and shatters a bone or splits it into fragments. Such a wound, unless followed promptly by amputation, is likely to prove fatal. The dum-dum bullet is so named from the fact that it was first made at the British arsenal of Dum-dum, near Calcutta, India. The use of these bullets in war was forbidden by the Hague Peace Conference of 1901-2.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's confidence in 1910 that iron steamship building was Dumbarton's most important industry has not survived: the great yard of William Denny and Brothers, successor to the builders who began the clipper Cutty Sark at Dumbarton in 1869, closed in 1963, and the town's economy now rests on distilling, light industry and commuting to Glasgow rather than the Clyde slipways. The county of 241 square miles has gone too, abolished in the local government reorganisation of 1975 and replaced, after further changes in 1996, by the West Dunbartonshire council area, the county spelling with an n having long diverged from the town's with an m. The castle rock itself is much as described, now a monument in state care open to visitors, and excavation has strengthened its identification as Alt Clut, the fortress capital of the British kingdom of Strathclyde. The two-handed sword shown as William Wallace's remains a tradition rather than a proven relic.
Written for this edition, 2026.