The Puffer

The Puffer by Elspeth Bennie stands on the Southbank Marina  on the Forth and Clyde canal, Kirkintilloch.  It is at the top of a ladder - type stand with the name of several Puffers on the cross bars.  It was created to celebrate the 100 Puffers built in Kirkintilloch by J & J Hay between 1886 and 1945.  The Clyde Puffer is a small coal - fired, single - masted cargo ship built on the Forth and Clyde Canal'
A  Puffer was the setting for the gently humorous  "Para Handy" novels  by Neil Gunn which was later made into a 1965  BBC Scotland series  "The Vital Spark" set in the western isles of Scotland in the 1930s.