Referring to a little souvenir booklet from 1909 written by the workers who created the Auchentibber Quoiting Green and surrounding gardens, these words tell of finishing the Quoiting Green and the positive effect it, and the gardens had on the community.
“Impress of Fleeting Years – and so the years have passed so swiftly to us, engrossed in our digging and planting and almost daily do we receive a small tribute, a fossil, a plant or some curiosity from some one eager to add a little to the completion of the work. Dullness and Discontent vanished – to stroll into the grounds of a summer evening and to see old and young at play with a zest denied to more elaborate games, will force the visitor to concede that here, at least, dullness and discontent have been by very simple but effective means completely banished from this village.
Keeping in mind this was written in 1909 and knowing the Inn was acquired in 1899, the account suggests that the bulk of the work happened in the years 1900-1909. J.B Struthers must have been exceptionally proud of what he and the volunteers achieved in those years. The gardens would go on to be talked about in later decades as being a popular tourist attraction, bringing in people from other villages and towns and of course the Auchentibber Quoiting team became so good, they won the Scottish Championships in 1928. Quoiting ended rather abruptly at Auchentibber around 1929 although a team reformed shortly after in High Blantyre. Struthers died at home, unmarried and without children in 1937.
Pictured in 1909 in these 4 previously unseen photos online are various pretty scenes around the garden. The rustic wooden stairs, leading to the roof garden, the rustic pavilion near the Inn, which would have acted as a rain shelter and perhaps for changing or storing equipment and the flagstone paths amongst ferns and the stone terraces. The pavilion was made of timber and clad in pieces of bark, similar to a nearby arch beside the steps to the roof garden.
