The Gow’s Linn photographed by Jim Brown
These photos by Jim Brown feature a waterfall on the Parkburn, a small stream that divides Blantyre from Burnbank and Hamilton.It is located down from the former Auchinraith House location at Whistlberry and divides Blantyre from Hamilton. Nearby, on the Hamilton side there is evidence of former quarry named Gows Quarry.
Andrew Jackson of Park Farm wrote in 1859 about this waterfall, commenting, “A waterfall about 13 feet high on ‘Whistleberry’, or ‘Park Burn’. The origin of the name is supposed to be from some person of the neighborhood. It is well known in the Parish.”
I have a theory about the person, believing it to be the owner of the nearby quarry of the time, although I have still to find hard evidence of that.
The stream comes down from Sydes Brae and known as the Red Burn at that location, joining into other streams to form the Parkburn. At times the stream is enclosed, having been built over and running though culverts, so it can be hidden underneath certain areas like the bus station at Springwells, and the Industrial Estate opposite, whilst people above go about their business unaware its there!
My experience of the Gows Linn is that it can often be dirty, openly polluted and deep in parts.
My Mum is originally from Hamilton and lived in the whitehill estate. When I was a kid we would visit my Nan in Scotland and I would play in the woods behind abbotsford avenue. I often wandered if there were any fish in this stream. My Mum told me that when she was a kid she would walk over the stream on a big metal pipe which went from one side to the other.