150 Bottles - Dunoon Goes POP | Sites

Dunoon Goes POP explores hidden heritage narratives through soft drinks making and community growing. The project involves co-designing POP tours and experiences to help more people engage with the rich social and cultural history of the town, whilst continuing with taste tests and the development of new flavours inspired by the People Of Place (or POP). Through re-establishing small scale soft drinks production in Dunoon, we want to nurture food and community growing, provide jobs and develop local solutions to climate change.

Dunoon Goes POP was inspired by the story of the enterprising George Stirling, a local pharmacist who established a soft drinks factory behind his shop in the rapidly expanding Scottish resort town of Dunoon. From the 1880s onwards the factory made a wide range of drinks, utilising ingredients imported into the town from across the British Empire including sugar, lemons and ginger. The factory closed in the 1970s, but the original building remained.

This map presents community research which explores the heritage and People of Place who are part of the story of drinks production in Dunoon. Dunoon Goes POP will be nurtured by POP shop enterprises CIC - a new Community interest company established to help enterprising ideas grow.

Thanks to the Heritage Lottery for supporting this project.

sites

Russia, Rhubarb and the Romanovs

Outside of China, where rhubarb was first cultivated, Russia was one of the first and largest countries to trade rhubarb species. This occurred before we began cultivating the plant in Europe. From th...

Rhubarb comes to Scotland

Strict controls on rhubarb cultivation by the Russians from 1600 to 1800 meant that rhubarb seeds were not permitted to be transported. As a result, the story of rhubarb arriving in Scotland is one of...

Liquorice - sweetener for rhubarb

Liquorice root, angelica stems, and sweet cicely have long been used—and are still occasionally used today—to reduce the tartness of rhubarb stems. When rhubarb first became part of the British diet, ...

Rhubarb Triangle

Most of the rhubarb consumed in the UK today is grown in Yorkshire, particularly forced rhubarb. The area between Leeds, Bradford, and Wakefield—known as the Rhubarb Triangle—has held Protected Design...

Greenock - Sugaropolis and Slavery

The sugar and slave trade played a pivotal role in the adoption of rhubarb hybrids as a garden and farm-grown crop in Britain. During the 1800s, British cultivation of rhubarb increased significantly ...

James Ewing - merchant, slaver and politician

This map location—Castle House—is an impressive villa built in 1822 as a summer house for James Ewing Esquire of Strathleven. The imposing Gothic-style building, situated near the ancient Dunoon Castl...

George Stirling and Stirling's Pharmacy

At the foot of Ferry Brae on Dunoon's high street is a pharmacy. The same premises have been continually used as a Pharmacy since 1868, when Chemist George Stirling located himself to this purpose-bui...

Ginger

Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, a perennial plant with leafy stems, grass-like and bright green leaves, yellowish green flowers, tuberous and fleshy rhizomes. Ginger is na...

Oranges

Oranges, along with other citrus fruits, originated in the Southeast Himalayan foothills, spanning parts of India, Myanmar, and China. The word "orange" comes from the Sanskrit word "nāranga," referri...

Lemons

Lemons have a fascinating history that dates back thousands of years, tracing their origins to northeastern India, northern Myanmar, and China. They are believed to be a hybrid, a cross between the bi...

Vanilla

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) is an evergreen vine that can reach up to 15m in length. It has thick stems and greenish to yellow flowers. The fruits are long, thin pods that contain thousands of tiny, ...

Sugarcane

Originating from New Guinea, the tall, bamboo-like grass known as sugarcane is processed to produce sugar. The history of sugarcane use dates back over 4,000 years to New Guinea, where it is believed ...

Taylor's Caymanas Estate and plantation

James Ewing owned the Taylor's Caymanas estate in Jamaica, located in the parish of St. Catherine. This property included 286 enslaved people. He held numerous other investments that resulted in a sub...

Robert Bryden and Dunoon Burgh Hall

Robert Alexander Bryden, Architect (1841–1906), was born in Glasgow and educated at Arthur’s Academy, Dunoon, and Kirkcaldy Grammar School. Apprenticed to Clarke & Bell, he was listed in The Glasg...

Eating Rhubarb - a well loved pudding!

Rhubarb was not widely consumed as it is today until the 19th century. One of the earliest known references to rhubarb as a food is a tart recipe from Maria Elizabeth Rundell’s 1807 cookbook, later re...

Cultivating Rhubarb

In 1763, Dr. Mounsey passed on both the responsibility and the opportunity of rhubarb cultivation by giving a pound of the valuable seeds to Sir Alexander Dick of the Royal College of Physicians in Ed...

China - the home of rhubarb

In China, people have selectively used the roots of rhubarb species to treat illnesses for thousands of years, long before we started growing and cooking the stalks of rhubarb. The rhubarb we know tod...