Towns > Helensburgh > 1875 - Battrum's guide and directory to Helensburgh and neighbourhood

COVE AND KILCREGGAN. 93
The estate of Roseneath, on which these villages are built,
it is almost needless to say, belongs to the Duke of Argyll.
The lands were offered to feu about the year 1848, and since
then the places may be said to have sprung into existence.
A pier was erected at Kilcreggan in 1850, and one at Cove
in 1852. There are two churches. The Established at
Craigrownie, pleasantly situated on the hill side, and built
in 1853, and the United Presbyterian, a wooden erection,
put up in 1858. A new stone building, to supersede this
wooden house, is now being erected.
The principal drives are to Roseneath village, four miles
distant through a beautifully wooded dale j to Coulport, five
miles distant by the shores of Lochlong, and round the
parish by Rahane and Peaton about twelve miles.
There is not much in the neighbourhood to interest the
antiquarian. Tradition points to Balfour of Burley having
made it his retreat after the defeat of the Covenanters at
Bothwell Brig, and his descendants are said still, or lately,
to have been found living in the parish. Scott's " Knock-
dunder Tower," immortalised in the Heart of Midlothian,
stood somewhere on the west extremity of the now conjoined
Burgh, and the site is said to be occupied by a wooden
house. Celtic arms, cists, human remains, and ancient coins
have in recent times been discovered in various parts of the
district, but not to any great extent.