Parkneuk, at Auchentibber

Annagail Leaman shared this wonderful photo asking if it was taken in Auchentibber? The photo belongs to her mother Jane Davies, (nee Crichton who has an association with the area via the Nimmo family.

This does indeed look like Parkneuk in Auchentibber, and I was excited to see this photo, which I think is the only known photo of these buildings. A group of 60 people, mostly children stand in front of three buildings which I think are on the west side of Parkneuk Road. Looking down Sydes Brae towards Blantyre. Beyond the treeline on the left and in the background would be Peewseep Row and Auchentibber Quoiting Green.

The name of these former Blantyre buildings are unknown to me but sat between McKays Land and Peesweep. They appear to be single storey which matches well to the 1898 map. The buildings are no longer there, but to put this into context i have superimposed the image on top of the modern, current location.

In September 2015, I walked through the woodlands on the left looking for the remains of these structures and found them, around 2 foot high, in amongst the trees. Nature now reclaimed the area entirely.

The land these homes were on was occupied as far back as 1859 but by just 2 small homes, in a different configuration from those you see. By 1898, these homes had been built and by 1910 a water tap serviced them, which you can see in the middle of the road on the right of the photo.

By 1936 the building in the background on the left had gone from maps, which gives a nice indication of this photo being between 1910 and 1936. Across the road from the buildings were the allotments to the north of Brown’s Land.

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