1999 Niaroo, Traveller’s camp. Photo by Jan Parnell
Pictured here in 1999 is the Niaroo, a rare photo still with the travellers camp there. The area is located mid way down the Pech Brae, down the hill from Barnhill.
The Niaroo sign and posts have fallen down, indeed one of the poles is still there today laying on the ground.
I went back to see what it looked like in 2014, some 15 years later and took this photo. The field is still prone to flooding from time to time.
https://blantyreproject.com/2016/09/29/joe-smith-pitman-pugilist-poacher/
https://blantyreproject.com/2016/09/29/joe-smith-pitman-pugilist-poacher/
2014 April Niaroo, Pech Brae (PV)
On social media:
Andy Callaghan My Uncle Hughie (Smith) used to live down here on a wee holding. He called it the Ponderosa.
The Blantyre Project Perhaps on account of the lovely pond once there? I hear rumours of it possibly being renovated or cleaned.
Moyra Lindsay Andy, I should have realised you were related to Hughie. Who was it had the shop in High Blantyre? His wife and son stayed not far from us in Laburnam Lea. Hughie wasn’t really a traveler more an eccentric!
Andy Callaghan Not sure we’ve got the same Hughie Moyra. He was certainly an eccentric. Very much his own man and marched to his own drum. Was married to my Dad’s sister, my Aunt May who lived in Blantyre with their son Joe, my cuz. They got on great as long as they didn’t live together! Don’t know anything about the High Blantyre shop.
The Blantyre Project it looks a little better than it did a few years ago. Some cleaning up must have happened but the whole area is strangely eerie. For some reason it unsettles me and my dog.
Ann Donnelly Hughies wife stayed greenbank
Lynn Kelly Loads of memories from going down the cawther , x
Mags Adam We used to go ice skating down there in the 70’s, NIAROO spelt backwards is OOR AIN,
taken in early Jan 2016
The Blantyre Project Great photo. There is a programme being launched which will introduce frogs and other wildlife back to this area. I’ll post about it shortly.