Cove is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
It is on the south-west of the Rosneath peninsula, on the east shore of Loch Long.
In common with many villages in the area, it was home to wealthy Glasgowmerchants and shipowners in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Several of the large houses have either been converted or have gone. Survivors include over a dozen houses by Alexander "Greek" Thomson: Craigrownie Castle, Glen Eden, Craig Ailey,Ferndean and Seymour Lodge, all dating from the 1850s. Of those not by Thomson,Hartfield was the summer residence of Lord Inverclyde became a YMCA hostel before its dereliction and demolition in the 1960s by Fraser Hamilton of Knockderry Farm.
Cove was conceived and built as a weekend and holiday resort for wealthy Glasgow families looking to escape the smog and noise of industrial Glasgow. Residents would travel to Cove by boat along the Clyde from Glasgow, a journey which could be done in under two hours.
Cove pier was built by John McElroy, a wealthy Glasgow iron and railway magnate and Thomas Forgan another wealthy buisnessman in 1852 the same year as the nearby craigrownie castle (designed by the famous Alexander 'Greek' Thomson.
Unfortunately nothing of the pier remains today as it fell out of use due to the popularity of the nearby Kilcreggan pier and later decommisioned in 1946.
while in the area check out the rest of the 'old piers of the clyde' series situated in Rhu,Shandon,Garelochhead,Mambeg,Clynder and Kilcreggan