Roy's map of the mid 18th century marks the ferry as being in the Ferrydyke and Donald's Quay location without recording a name.

The end of the approximately 170-foot-long (52-metre) quay is slightly wider than the midsection and it leads to a lane that accesses the stables area directly as well as running up to the Ferrydyke Wharf on the canal above.

[7] The 1896 25 inch to the mile OS map shows Donald's Quay Light (fixed red and white) standing on a very short stone pier that is approached via a substantial footbridge over the new railway.

[9] The late 18th century Ferrydyke bascule bridge (NS458731)[10] is one of the few remaining on the Forth & Clyde Canal and once carried the junction off the Old Portpatrick road to Donald's Quay, former site of the ferry to Erskine.

[18] The name 'Ferrydyke' given to the site records the onetime presence of a ferry as well as suggesting that this quay may have been part of the large numbers of artificial dykes that were built in an effort to deepen the River Clyde to permit passage to Glasgow docks by larger ships.

Bruce records that a sandbank formed in the 18th century that interfered with the passage of the ferry and forced its removal to its final location up river to the east of the Erskine Bridge.

The 1914 OS map shows for the first time a number of mooring posts running along the northern bank of the canal towards Lock 37 from Ferrydyke bascule bridge that were still present in 1937.

[25] The stables below Ferrydyke Bridge are of an unusual construction having a 'walled garden' style outward appearance with a large entrance door in keeping with that analogy.

Two large stone pillars represent the remnants of the footbridge that the railway built to provide access to the Donald's Quay Light.

A distance Slab of the Twentieth Legion was found at Ferrydyke at some point before 1684 marking the western termination of the Antonine Wall.