Wemyss Bay Station and Pier date back to a time when holidays were taken locally. This one-time transport hub on the Firth of Clyde made it possible for the populations of Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock to travel south by train, then catch a ferry to the immensely popular holiday destination of Rothsey on the Isle of Bute. This annual migration was, for a short period in history, part of a major tourist industry which happened during the respective "Fair" of each town. For a hundred years a "holiday doon the watter" was the reward for the workers who toiled in the now long gone heavy industries of the West of Scotland - shipbuilding, steel, fabric mills, the chemical industry.
Today the station and pier mainly serves the local population for the daily commuter run, as they travel back and forth, in a strange kind of reversal of the previous direction of travel. The station and pier were refurbished in 1997, and remain reasonably well maintained, providing a glimpse of a bye-gone age, though only two rail lines remain. The landward platform seems to serve no tracks, and has no current purpose other than to be admired.
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