I’ve lost count of the amount of people who drowned in the Clyde at Blantyre, whether accidentally (or indeed deliberately through own actions). Not a nice story to dwell on , but this newspaper report from 27th July 1931, told of another body being discovered in the water. “WOMAN’S BODY IN RIVER. The body of […]
These beautiful photos feature Blantyre fields at the Clyde, near Craighead, overlooking Bothwell. Taken from Gilmour’s Directory in 1904, they offer in some fine detail what the riverside looked like well over a hundred years ago. In those earlier years, the viaduct was a busy thoroughfare, allowing not only rail, but pedestrian crossings too, on […]
Two remarkable photos taken in 1963 of the abandoned Craighead Railway Viaduct. Both photos were taken by John Robin, famed for taking photos of a full series of local bridges. Both photos look Northwards towards Bothwell, photographed from the Blantyre side. The first shows the abandoned Railway iron structure. The second, is a rarer photograph […]
On Saturday 13th August 1938, a weary Carfin man Anthony Donnelly found himself in Blantyre, contemplating ending it all. He had walked up on to the Craighead Railway Viaduct and with his legs over the edge, sat there in silence. However, fate thankfully intervened when at 3.15pm a miner walking on the bridge, saw Anthony […]
Pictured are the old stone pillars ruins that currently remain of the Craighead Viaduct. The viaduct crossed the River Clyde near Craighead and carried the London, Northern and Eastern Railway (LNER) line between the stations of Burnbank and Bothwell. The railway ran under Whistleberry Road and past the Craighead pit bing to this viaduct which […]