The area of Calderwood Glen continues to fascinate me. Whilst only half the glen is in Blantyre Parish, there are lots of interesting features and stories to be told for this area as a whole. On a path on the opposite bank of the River Calder from the Hermitage building was a small natural spring, […]
You’ll notice I say “row” and not “rows” here. Unlike most other miners rows houses in Blantyre, Auchinraith Row was a single row of miners homes. Built in 1874 by Messrs Merry and Cunningham these homes remained the property of the colliery which was sited nearby. The row sat to the East of the modern […]
Such a shame that Craighead House was destroyed by fire in February 2001. It left a scene of destruction that left no alternative for contractors to demolish the building and indeed the surrounding outbuildings. One of such outbuildings, was a sandstone tower, with “battle ramparts”. The tower was likely an 19th century addition to the […]
The following extract is taken from the 1693 Church records X1-X14 Trace 6. It describes in detail, a well in High Blantyre, called Kennings Well. “An open Spring well having nothing whatever remarkable in its appearance, it is approached from the Village by a Public foot road which passes the Parish School (School Lane). The […]
In the 1791 A Statistical Account of Blantyre written by Rev Henry Stevenson, there is a comment about a Spring in Blantyre that was even visited as a tourist destination! Long lost to history, the exact location of this Spring is now unknown. Where from the description below could this be? Springwells must have got […]
Another noble visitor to Blantyre was Mary (Queen of Scots). The Annals of Blantyre book 1885 commented, “The old road along which Queen Mary passed on her way from Hamilton Palace to Cathcart Castle, on the day previous to the battle of Langside, intersects the property, and there is a beautiful spring of water in […]