The Quoiting Green was situated behind the old War Memorial at Auchentibber. The local Miners in the late 1890’s spent some time working stone and building ornamental gardens modelled on Italian Designs. The gardens turned out to be very impressive and featured as a beautiful backdrop to the sporting ground itself. The gardens were terraced, with life size statues and ornate stone carvings. Click on photos to enlarge them.
Mr JB Struthers co-ordinated the operation permitting the miners to construct the gardens on his land. However, Mr Struthers had another agenda as he just happened to own the nearby Inn and by all accounts welcomed all the sporting heroes and visitors to his establishment each weekend.
Quoiting was a popular sport played throughout Scotland in the years between 1890 – 1930 or so. It was a simple game a but like “hoopla”, where metal discs were skillfully thrown to hoop on and land on wooden spikes rising out the ground and on fences. During 1928 the Blantyre team won the Scottish Championships. Sadly, the quoiting green is now very overgrown and there are only small traces of any of the stone remaining within the gardens. The whole area is incredibly overgrown and in a few years i think will be totally reclaimed by woodland.
Last Saturday, i visited the site and took these photographs. Traces of the arches can still be seen. Also apparent , (just about) was the quoiting green itself, a flat area , with no trees but lots of undergrowth.
