Helensburgh & Rhu Through Time

Helensburgh’s history begins on the 11 January 1776 when Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, on the shore of Loch Lomond, advertised land to be divided into building plots on the south-facing slope overlooking the Clyde. The town, called after Lady Helen Colquhoun, received a royal charter in 1802 and developed rapidly on a planned grid pattern during the nineteenth century. Henry Bell’s Comet, the first...