CLSNA' LamontCentral Forum

Ardentinny is a small village on the west shore of Loch Long, fourteen miles from Dunoon in Argyll on the Cowal peninsula. It can also be reached from the North by way of the old drove road, five miles down Glen Finnart from Whistlefield on the shores of Loch Eck. Standing to the North and looking down on Ardentinny and the ruins of Glenfinnart House is Cruach a’ Chaise or “Cheese Hill” while on the opposite side of Loch Long is Coulport the base for Britain’s Trident Nuclear Defence force. Coulport, ”the back ferry, so called to distinguish it from Ardentinny on the opposite shore where the signal fire was kindled and which was considered the front or principal port”

The name Ardentinny means the hill of fire deriving either from the ancient rite of lighting fires to the God of Bel on May 1^st or more likely for warning fires to aid mariners. The ferry between Ardentinny and Coulport was used by the Dukes of Argyll traveling between Dunoon, Inveraray to RoseneathCastle and in later years by drovers from Argyll traveling to the markets in Central Scotland.

The most infamous use of the ferry was in 1645 when it was likely used when Sir James Lamont and Sir Alexander McDonald raided Argyll lands in Cowal from Roseneath capturing Toward Castle and plundered Kilmun and Strachur. This precipitated the revenge of Argyll the following year when he captured and burnt down Toward Castle, murdering most of its Lamont inhabitants.

Later years would have been less bloody and the ferry was no longer in existence by the mid 19^th century although the old ferry house was where passengers were rowed out to the steamers to Lochgoilhead or Dunoon, there being no direct road to either.