Editing Dunoon (section)

==History==
{{see also|List of listed buildings in Dunoon}}

[[File:The pier, Dunoon, Scotland LOC 3449527955.jpg|thumb|[[Dunoon Pier]], looking southeast]]
[[File:(East Bay, Dunoon, Scotland) (LOC) (3449528191).jpg|thumb|East Bay, looking north, including the [[Argyll Hotel]]]]

[[Dunoon Castle]] was built on a small, partly artificial, conical hill beside the [[Firth of Clyde]] in the 12th century, of which low walls remain.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/40729/dunoon-castle |title= Dunoon Castle|publisher=Canmore |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> It eventually became a royal castle with the [[Earls of Argyll]] ([[Clan Campbell|Campbell]]s) as hereditary keepers, paying a nominal rent of a single red rose to the sovereign. [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], visited Dunoon Castle on 26 July 1563 and granted several charters during her visit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townhistory3813.html |title=Gazetteer for Scotland: Dunoon |publisher=Scottish-places.info |access-date=14 December 2016}}</ref> In 1646 the [[Dunoon massacre]] of members of [[Clan Lamont]] by members of Clan Campbell took place. The castle was destroyed during [[Argyll's Rising]], a rebellion in 1685 against [[James VII]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Rebellion, Government and the Scottish Response to Argyll's Rising of 1685 |journal=Journal of Scottish Historical Studies |volume=36 |pages=40–59 |doi=10.3366/jshs.2016.0167 |year = 2016|last1 = Kennedy|first1 = A.|url=http://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/files/17846035/Author_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf }}</ref>

In the early 19th century, the town's main street, [[Argyll Street, Dunoon|Argyll Street]], stopped at Moir Street. Instead of continuing to [[Dunoon Pier]], it turned right at today's Sinbad's Bar. Before [[Dunoon Burgh Hall]] was built, beginning in 1873, the land was an open field, owned by [[James MacArthur Moir]], leading to an area known as the Gallowhill. There were no streets and houses between Argyll Street and Edward Street. Argyll Street, roughly as it is seen today, was completed by 1870. Moir donated some of his land for the building of the Burgh Hall, but he did not get to see its completion; he died by suicide in 1872.<ref name=chronicles>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dunoonburghhall.org.uk/files/67999-DBH-Chronicles.pdf|title=Dunoon Burgh Hall ''Chronicles'', issue 1}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Dunoon in the 21st century is overlaid with the ghost of a town which, in 1885, possessed two banks, 21 insurance agencies, 10 hotels, a gas company, two bowling greens, three weekly papers, the West of Scotland Convalescent Sea-side Homes (complete with Romanesque [[hydropathic]] spa) and the lavishly appointed second homes of some of Scotland's most successful people.|''Saving the Hall'' (Jay Merrick, 2017)<ref name=merrick/>}}

The two banks mentioned above were the [[Union Bank of Scotland]] and the [[City of Glasgow Bank]].<ref name="ColegateP7">{{cite book|author=John COLEGATE|title=Colegate's Guide to Dunoon, Kirn, and Hunter's Quay. Second edition. &#91;With plates.&#93;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AR5bAAAAcAAJ|access-date=30 December 2020|year=1868|publisher=John Colegate|page=7|archive-date=20 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920232539/https://books.google.com/books?id=AR5bAAAAcAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The hydropathic spa, meanwhile, was "an elegant new baths building, named Ardvullin, erected a little to the north of the village as a hydropathic establishment, where baths - hot, cold, artificial salt, and Turkish — may be had at moderate charges."<ref name=ColegateP8/>

Many of the town's early villas had their own private bathing ground or boxes.

{{blockquote|The best bathing place for ladies is the West Bay. Gentlemen's bathing places: Rocks, foot of Castle Hill, deep at all states of the tide. Sand: beyond Baugie Burn, beginning of Bullwood, shallow and sandy. Rocks: behind [[Argyll Hotel]], available only at high water. Kirn Pier and Hunters Quay, deep water.|''Colegate's Guide to Dunoon, Kirn, and Hunter's Quay'' (John Colegate, 1868)<ref name=ColegateP8>[https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_COLEGATE_Colegate_s_Guide_to_Dunoon_Kirn_and?id=AR5bAAAAcAAJ ''Colegate's Guide to Dunoon, Kirn, and Hunter's Quay'' (Second edition)] - John Colegate (1868), page 8</ref>}}

The population of the united parishes of Dunoon and [[Kilmun]] in 1861 was 5,444; in 1866 the estimated population of Dunoon, from Baugie Burn to [[Hunters Quay]], was 3,000.<ref name=ColegateP12>[https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_COLEGATE_Colegate_s_Guide_to_Dunoon_Kirn_and?id=AR5bAAAAcAAJ ''Colegate's Guide to Dunoon, Kirn, and Hunter's Quay'' (Second edition)] - John Colegate (1868), page 12</ref>

[[File:Submarine passing Kirn - geograph.org.uk - 858623.jpg|thumb|right|Submarine passing [[Kirn, Argyll|Kirn]], viewed from [[Gourock]]]]

During the [[World Wars]], as the main part of the Firth of Clyde defences, the Cloch Point-to-Dunoon [[Anti-submarine weapon|anti-submarine]] boom was anchored to the shore in Dunoon below Castle Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/239524/clyde-defences-cloch-point-to-dunoon-anti-submarine-boom |title=Clyde Defences, Cloch Point To Dunoon Anti-submarine Boom |publisher=Canmore |date=3 July 2013 |access-date=15 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bute-at-war.org/butewar.shtml|title=Bute during World War II|website=www.bute-at-war.org}}</ref> A [[Palmerston Fort]] and camp at [[Ardhallow Battery]] in the south of the town provided one of the coastal defence gun emplacements that covered the anti-submarine boom and Firth of Clyde waters. There also was a gun emplacement atop Castle Hill.

In 1961, as the [[Cold War]] intensified, the [[Holy Loch]]'s importance grew when the [[U.S. Navy]] submarine tender [[USS Proteus (AS-19)|USS ''Proteus'']] brought [[Polaris ballistic missile]]s, [[nuclear submarines]] to the Firth of Clyde at [[Sandbank, Argyll|Sandbank]]. [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] protesters drew this to the public's attention.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19610515&id=oBI1AAAAIBAJ&pg=4603,2219229&hl=en |title=Anti-Polaris Protest at Dunoon. Angry Kerbside Exchanges |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=15 May 1961 |page=8 |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> Holy Loch was, for thirty years, the home port of U.S. Navy [[Submarine Squadron 14]] and Dunoon, therefore, became a garrison town.

In 1991, the Holy Loch base was deemed unnecessary following the demise of the [[Soviet Union]] and was subsequently withdrawn. The last submarine tender to be based there, the [[USS Simon Lake|USS ''Simon Lake'']], left Holy Loch in March 1992, leading to a major and continuing downturn in the local economy.<ref name=merrick>[https://theaou.org/if-you-rebuild-it-they-will-come-unlocking-local-creativity-doon-the-watter-jay-merrick/ "If you rebuild it, they will come: Unlocking local creativity 'doon the watter' | Jay Merrick"]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - The Academy of Urbanism</ref>

In May 2012, Dunoon and [[Campbeltown]] were jointly named as the rural places in Scotland most vulnerable to a downturn in a report by the [[Scottish Agricultural College]] looking at ninety places.<ref name="BBC vulnerable">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-18234531|title='Vulnerable' Scottish rural towns listed|date=28 May 2012|work=BBC News |access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/politics/revealed-our-rural-towns-on-the-brink-1-2320887|title=Revealed: our rural towns on the brink|last=Cowling|first=Emma|date=27 May 2012|work=Scotsland on Sunday|access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref>