Titan Crane

📌 Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire
★★★

🛠️ Site closed due to nearby construction work (checked April 2024)

The Titan Crane towers over a mainly post-industrial stretch of the River Clyde between Clydebank and Yoker, half a dozen miles downstream from central Glasgow. At 150 feet tall, this was one of the largest cranes ever built to service the Clyde’s shipbuilding industry, and one of very few still remaining. Between 1907 and the 1980s dozens of ships were constructed with the help of Titan, including the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, QE2 and the Royal Yacht Britannia. With the decline in shipbuilding the crane fell into disuse but re-opened as a tourist attraction in 2007 – on certain dates you can even bungee jump off it. A modern lift whisks you up to the crane’s jib which now doubles as the viewing platform. The panorama is unsurprisingly excellent, taking in much of the tidal Clyde, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Glasgow. Much of the original lifting gear is visible at the top (and apparently largely still in working order), while back at ground level exhibitions take you through the crane’s history as well as the area’s shipbuilding heritage.