Parish of New Kilpatrick

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry Arrow

Links to the Historical Statistical Accounts of Scotland are also available:
(Click on the link to the right, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Browse scanned pages")

1791-99: Kilpatrick-New
1834-45: Kilpatrick-New

Kilpatrick, New or East, a village of SE Dumbartonshire, and a parish partly also in Stirlingshire. The village stands, 181 feet above sea-level, 2½ miles S by W of Milngavie, and 5½ NNW of Glasgow, under which it has a post office. Close to it is Bearsden station, with another post and telegraph office. Pop. (1881) 764.

The parish, containing also the town of Milngavie, and the villages of Canniesburn, Dalsholm, Garscadden, Knightswood, and Netherton, was disjoined from West Kilpatrick in 1649. It is bounded NE by Strathblane, E by Baldernock, SE by Cadder and Maryhill in Lanarkshire, S by Renfrew, and W by Old Kilpatrick. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 61/8 miles; its breadth varies between 13/8 and 4½ miles; and its area is 12,1461/3 acres, of which 195½ are water, and 28531/3 belong to Stirlingshire. The Kelvin meanders 4¼ miles south-south-westward along all the Lanarkshire border; and Allander Water, its affluent, has here a south-eastward course of 5¾ miles, viz., 23/8 along the Strathblane boundary, 27/8 through the eastern interior, and 1½ along the Baldernock boundary. Mugdock Reservoir (51/3 x 3 furl.) of the Glasgow Waterworks falls just within the north-eastern border; Dougalston Loch (4½ x 1 furl.) lies partly in New Kilpatrick, but chiefly in Baldernock; and three small lakes are in the Dumbartonshire section, whose southern district is traversed by the Forth and Clyde Canal for a distance of 43/8 miles westward from the aqueduct over the Kelvin. The surface declines in the extreme S to 29 feet above sea-level, and rises thence northward to 495 at Windyhill and 1171 at the West Kilpatrick border near Cockno Loch, this NW corner, to the extent of 4 square miles, being occupied by a portion of the Kilpatrick Hills, whilst all the rest of the parish presents a succession of undulations, thickly set with swelling knolls, and forms a very variegated and interesting landscape. Trap rocks, comprising greenstone, basalt, amygdaloid, tufa, and greywacke, predominate in the hills; and carboniferous rocks, comprising sandstone, limestone, ironstone, and coal, predominate in the low tracts. A costly but fruitless search was at one time made in the hills for lead ore; sandstone of beautiful colour and fine texture is quarried at Netherton; limestone was formerly calcined at Langfaulds, as now at Baljaffray; and coal is mined at Garscube and four other places. The soil on much of the banks of the Kelvin and the Allander is a deep rich loam; on some knolls is of a light, dry, sandy character; on most of the arable lands is a fertile clay on a tilly bottom; and on much of the hills is moor or bog. About 750 acres are under wood; rather more than half of the entire area is regularly or occasionally in tillage; and the rest is either pastoral or waste. The chief antiquities are traces of a long reach of Antoninus' Wall, ruins of Drumry Castle, and faint remains of an ancient chapel at Lurg. Manuhactories of various kinds are prominent, chiefly at Milngavie and other places on Allander Water. Mansions, noticed separately, are Clober, Craigton, Dougalston, Garscadden, Garscube, Killermont, Kilmardinny, and Mains; and 9 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 19 of between £100 and £500, 10 of from £50 to £100, and 14 of from £20 to £50. In the presbytery of Dumbarton and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, this parish since 1873 has been divided ecclesiastically into New Kilpatrick proper and Milngavie quoad sacra parish, the former a living worth £442. Its church, at New Kilpatrick village, was built in 1807, and contains 850 sittings. During the last ten years it has been thrice enlarged; once to receive an organ, the gift of the late Mr Hugh Kirkwood, and twice to provide 220 additional sittings. A U.P. church, with 400 sittings, has been erected in the rising suburb of Bearsden. Five public schools -Blairdardie, Craigton, Garscadden, Netherton, and New Kilpatrick-with respective accommodation for 62, 48, 196, 125, and 263 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 52, 36, 243, 118, and 141, and grants of £44, 9s., £42, 6s., £216, 1s., £68, 12s. 10d., and £151, 2s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £15,635, (1883) £114,767, 18s. 4d., including £18,188, 16s. 4d. for the Stirlingshire section. Pop. (1801) 2112, (1831) 3090, (1861) 4910, (1871) 6038, (1881) 7414, of whom 45 65 were in Dumbartonshire, and 4487 in the ecclesiastical parish of New Kilpatrick.—Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better