Old Map of the Ports & Harbours of the West Coast of Scotland in 1872 by Fullarton - Glasgow, Ayr, Portpatrick

This map was first published in 1872 by A. Fullarton & Co. as part of its Royal Illustrated Atlas, a lavish Victorian production regarded as one of the last great highly decorative atlases produced before mapmaking shifted toward the plainer, more functional style of the 20th century. The plate was engraved by G. H. Swanston, whose fine hand-colouring survives on this sheet, and rather than showing a single continuous coastline, it is built as a coastal composite, comprising ten separate detailed views of ports and harbours strung along Scotland's west coast and its surrounding islands. This format let Fullarton's engravers show each harbour at a scale detailed enough to be genuinely useful to sailors and merchants of the day, rather than compressing the whole coastline onto a single, less legible sheet.

Glasgow anchors the map at the mouth of the River Clyde, already Scotland's great shipbuilding and trading port by 1872, with the river shown winding out toward the Firth of Clyde and the open sea beyond. Largs and Troon appear along the Ayrshire coast, together with Ardrossan and Irvine further south, all busy harbour towns serving the steamer and fishing trade of the period. Ayr itself, a long-established royal burgh, and Campbeltown, out on the Kintyre peninsula, both feature among the ten harbour views, alongside Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and Portpatrick, the small port historically used for the short sea crossing to Ireland. The west coast of Scotland shown here remains one of the world's great destinations for sea and freshwater angling, holding records for species such as anglerfish and turbot caught in the deep waters off this stretch of coastline.

This is a fitting gift for anyone with maritime connections to the Clyde or the Ayrshire coast, whether a former sailor, a keen sea angler, or a family with roots in one of the harbour towns shown here. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, suiting a study, an office, or a larger wall in need of a real centrepiece. Well suited to a retirement gift for someone who spent a career on Scottish waters, this 1872 Fullarton edition brings together ten of the west coast's working harbours on one detailed, hand-coloured sheet.