Milngavie

Olden Days

Old Photographs of Milngavie as it once was

War Memorial

at Milngavie Town Centre

The memorial was erected in 1922

Milngavie's first parish church

built in 1840

Gavin's Mill in Milngavie

The village of Milngavie grew up
on the banks of the River Allander
where grain mills have been powered
by the river since the fifteenth century.

The village name may derive from
the historic Gavin's Mill.

Gavin's Mill dates from c1670

The Cross Keys and Station Road

in Milngavie Town Centre

Station Road in Milngavie

Shops in Station Road.

Douglas Arms in Milngavie

Douglas Street in Milngavie

St Paul's Church in Milngavie

The church was built
in ‘Scottish Gothic’ style
in 1906.

St Paul's Milngavie

Funeral procession in Milngavie

Cairns Church in Milngavie Town Centre

A traditional church design built in 1903.

Shows much gothic detail
including tracery and trefoils
also displaying influence of
Scottish Art Nouveau.

Baldernock Church on outskirts of Milngavie

There has been a church on the site
for at least a century and a half.

Craigmaddie House on outskirts of Milngavie

Craigmaddie was held by the Galbraiths of Baldernock

in the middle ages, and there are ruins of an old castle.

Glasgow's Lord Provost, James Black, purchased the estate

at the end of the 18th century and built a cottage there.

He subsequently built the mansion,

which was extended by a subsequent owner.

Henry Gordon, who acquired the estate in 1842,

made Craigmaddie the manor house

for the Dougalston estate and he, too,

made additions to the building.

In 1896 Glasgow Corporation

built a service reservoir at Craigmaddie,

beside the existing Mugdock Reservoir.

Craigmaddie House in 1870

Clober House

James Macgregor, a Glasgow merchant,

built the mansion in 1773

near the site of an earlier house

on the banks of the Allander Water.

His son-in-law, James Watt,

had already embarked on his career

as a civil and mechanical engineer.

Watt was responsible for laying-out

a bleachfield on the estate,

supervising the creation of the water courses

and the installation of machinery.

The mansion was extended in 1833

to the designs of architect John Baird.

It had been demolished by the 1960s

when the Clober housing estate was built.

Clober House in 1870

Mugdock Mansion

The former Mugdock Mansion

now demolished

Smith's Folly at Mugdock Country Park

Smith’s Folly which stands on a hill
above the South Lodge car park
at Mugdock Country Park.

This was the start of a tree-lined avenue
leading to the home of James Smith at Craigend Castle.

The castellated tower or gazebo
was built for him about 1816.

The small octagonal tower had two storeys
and was once finely decorated with Gothic windows
and vaulting and trefoil decoration.

The folly had no roof or floors
but had a an open-sided staircase
that wound its way to the top,
from where the visitor could enjoy good views of Glasgow,
as well as Dumgoyne and the Campsie Fells.

The tower was repurposed as a watchtower
for the nearby reservoirs during the war years.
In the 1980s it was demolished
due to becoming unstable
and sadly only the base of the tower remains.

In 1981 Royal Mail issued a 50p booklet of stamps
with a picture of Smith’s Folly on the front
but erroneously called it Mugdock Castle.

Bennie Railplane at Milngavie

The railplane was invented
by George Bennie ( 1891–1957 ).

This was designed to move along an overhead rail
by means of propellers.

It was intended to run above conventional railways
and separate fast passenger traffic
from slow freight traffic.

A prototype and 130 metre stretch of line
was constructed outside Milngavie in the 1930s
but Bennie was not able to obtain funds
for further development.

The line was demolished in the 1950s.