This photo likely from the 1910s or 1920s has prompted some discussion. It’s marked up “River Calder” but does not look like any location at Milheugh or Bardykes.
I think this is the former Ford (water crossing), just south of the Holmbarns location. It was close to Newhousemill Road and Edge Farm at the High Calder.
I’ve marked up an overlaid map showing where I think it is with a red dot. The Ford would have been a good subject for such a photo. Topography, woodland, bend in the river all fits.
Today, as Jim Brown’s modern photo shows, the land profile is similar, the trees more grown but you can see how there are similarities.
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Chris Ladds I am certain this is Walkford aka Torrance Ford, from which The Barn of the Ford took its name hence ‘Holmbarn’ which appears in early charters. This view would appear to be contemporary with other views from the Calder in the same style and finish, and so I think it would be 1914-1920, although more likely 1918-1920. A great find.
Chris Ladds Jim’s view will be from slightly more upstream.
I’ve since come across this again Paul, while looking for something else as usual. Despite previous comments, I have looked at this again, and it cannot possibly be in the area suggested. This is mainly because of the profile of the ridgeline which simply doesn’t exist there, but neither does the dominant middle ground bank that intervenes. The river character is also all over the place and not a match. The fragmenting soil on the left bank also suggest a deep crumbling loam. It is not like that in the area named. I have since looked again and I am sure it is a spot close to the Pattonholm Ford by Barnhill, which has an exact match of the intervening bank and the ridgeline which sweeps across and descends to the right. The soil, height and the river character and shape are a match too. It is worth pointing out that if it had been the area far upriver, then even a misguided postcard maker would be unlikely to have termed it High Blantyre. That name truly centred on the settlement while the higher up parts were called Blantyre Muir, or more local names like Auchentibber. That far up and civic knowledge became very poor indeed, so we may have expected some goof up like ‘East Kilbride’ or ‘Torrance’ (the latter which it was a part of). So, I think this is taken from somewhere by the holmlands at Pattonholm. Indeed, I have since found other discussions of the view and this seems to have been a dominant thought of some spectators at the time.