Ailsa Craig Ltd

Ailsa Craig from Girvan © Neil Cunningham

No, it’s not a new holiday or tour company offering sailing trips around the Firth of Clyde, but the name of a little known engineering company that had it roots in Glasgow, and went on to become a niche manufacturer of highly reliable marine engines, and has come to be acknowledged as the creator of the world’s first V12 engine – in 1904.

Ailsa Craig Ltd grew from the high quality bicycle manufacturing business of Alistair Edward Stuart Craig, also known as Arthur, who is understood to have distributed his Craig Bicycles mainly through wholesale routes, meaning that they they were generally sold to the public not as his own product, but as re-badged items under other names. This means that there appears to be virtually no original examples of Craig’s own bicycles to be found. (If anyone does know where any examples are to be found or are being displayed, we’d like to know.)

Ailsa Craig logo

Although the company would eventually come to be established in England, after Craig left Glasgow to seek greater opportunities near London, its name was derived from the name of its founder, and from the rocky island of Ailsa Craig. Craig Bicycle’s own registered trademark was that of a man standing on the peak of Ailsa Craig, holding a Craig bicycle at arm’s length, and with the slogan “As strong as the rock of Ailsa Craig”.

The bicycle manufacturing business appears to have been established in Glasgow until 1891, at which point Craig moved to London to re-establish himself there, and develop his business by manufacturing motorised bicycles. However, events of the time overtook this plan, and the growth in popularity of the motor car led to a desire to build larger engines to power this new arrival.

Craig’s business developed a reputation for quality engineering work, and came to be involved in various projects, ranging from vehicle manufacture to marine engineering, however it was marine engine design and manufacture which would become the main product for the business, as the engines were extremely dependable.

The company survived both World Wars, and the problems of working for the government, but was eventually sunk when the bank called in its overdraft in 1962. Bought for a knock-down price by the Warsop Fram group, it was neglected, and finally ceased trading in 1974.

Our page on Ailsa Craig Ltd provides greater detail on the company’s history, and provides further links to the Ailsa Craig Engines web site, where detailed information and help with the engines can be obtained.

Information Appeal

There is almost no information known about the early operation of the business, or of Craig Bicycles operation in Glasgow in the period up to 1891, therefore we are appealing for any information anyone may have regarding the bicycles, the business, or Arthur Craig around this time. This can be left as a comment below, or more privately using the Contact Form on our Main Site.

The Ailsa Craig Archive has been most kind in sharing all of its information with us, therefore if you have any information regarding the company – (it’s worth noting that the Warsop Fram Group attempted to burn and destroy all the records and remains of Ailsa Craig Ltd after they closed it down) – then we would be most grateful to learn of this, and will forward it on to the archive.

Hillman Imp connection

Forming rather more than a connection in reality, Ailsa Craig Ltd was in fact responsible for providing the Imp name which described Rootes’ answer to BMC’s Mini in 1963. How Warsop Fram came to turn the Imp name into a trivial profit is revealed in part of the story which appears in both our Ailsa Craig Ltd, and Hillman Imp pages.

Hillman Imp in the Glasgow Museum of Transport