Cobbinshaw Reservoir

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.

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Cobinshaw, a station and an adjoining reservoir in West Calder parish, Edinburghshire. The station is on the Caledonian railway, 18 miles SW of Edinburgh. The reservoir, lying 880 feet above sea-level, has an utmost length from SSW to NNE of 1½ mile, whilst its breadth varies from 1 to 3½ furlongs. Its head just falls within Lanarkshire, and its western shore is closely followed by the Carstairs and Edinburgh fork of the Caledonian railway. Formed to supply the Union Canal, it presents the appearance of a bleak natural lake; in 1877 Mr Jn. Anderson stocked it with 20,000 salmon and sea-trout ova from the Tay, which seem to thrive well, ranging from 2 to 3 lbs. in August 1880.

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