2014 Yanni Pool, Blantyre by Richard Rankin
Richard Rankin took these three photos in early October 2014. Shared here, they feature an interesting inscription on the side of a rock, adjacent to the River Calder. It says “Wee Yanni Pool”. The exact location is on the left river bank at Crossbasket.
Richard said, “I first noticed this years ago up trouting, at first thought it was a carved date. I was back up trouting during the week and thought it would make an interesting photo,anyhow went over and scraped the moss of and found the inscription. Referring to the “Yanni Pool”, I can remember when we were younger we used to jump into the falls down at millheugh and shout janni bear,don’t no if that’s a coincidence with an old saying or not.“
The inscription is well carved with some effort, deeply into the rock. There is a symbol above the words, depicting a flower or daisy of sorts. Who carved the words are a mystery, although Gordon Cook recently told me that there was a character in Blantyre named “Yanni”. If you know anything about this carving, please contact me and I’ll update the story. Thanks.
Update: I have since found out that the carving was made by John Dunsmore, a retired sculptor who went to calder st and the blantyre annexe and loves fishing down the calder.
