Partick Duck Club

In a large building with a smoking chimney located near the original transport museum site, was a tavern known as the “bun and yill house” or bunhouse (yill is an old scots word for ale) in 1827. It stood on old Dumbarton Road on the approach to the river Kelvin. The bunhouse was the favorite tavern of a group of Glasgow merchants, bankers, and professors. they would walk out to Partick from the city each Saturday to dine on roasted duck, sage & onion, and green peas, washed down with locally-brewed ale. The ducks were abundant and healthy from feeding at all the local grain mills on the banks of the river Kelvin. Their favorite dish gave the name to the drinking and social club they formed in 1810, the duck club of Partick. their president’s fondness for the fowl gave rise to the verse: “the ducks of Partick quake with fear, crying lord preserve us, here’s mcTear”.