Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Carmunnock

Carmunnock, a village and a parish on the Renfrewshire border of Lanarkshire. The village, 1½ mile NE of Busby station and 5 miles S by E of Glasgow, is a pleasant little place, inhabited chiefly by hand-loom weavers, with several shops, and a post office under Glasgow. Pop. (1861) 360, (1871) 376, (1881) 486. Bounded N by Cathcart and Rutherglen, NE and E by Cambuslang, S by East Kilbride, and W by Renfrewshire, the parish has an extreme length from E to W of 3½ miles, an extreme breadth of 2¾ miles, and an area of 3490 acres, of which 11 are water. White Cart Water traces the western boundary; and the Kittoch rivulet runs in the interior. The surface is charmingly diversified with hill and dale, sinking in the W to 100 feet above sea-level, and rising eastward and south-eastward to 462 feet near Windlaw, 413 near Millfarm, 671 on Cathkin Braes, 552 near Parklee, and 691 in the SE corner of the parish-heights that command one of the widest and richest prospects in the W of Scotland. Trap is the prevailing rock; but limestone and ironstone, both of prime quality, are found. The soil, for the most part, is either a free earthy mould, incumbent on trap, or a stiff clay or argillaceous earth on a retentive bottom. About 3000 acres are arable, and some 350 are under wood, 86 acres of mixed plantations having been formed on the Castlemilk estate during 1860-62, as described in Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soe. (1871). Castlemilk House, 1½ mile S of Rutherglen, is a stately old mansion, with massive battlemented walls; its owner, Capt. Jas. Stirling-Stuart (b. 1825), a lineal descendant of the royal house, holds 2137 acres in the shire, valued at £3260 per annum. Queen Mary is said to have lodged at Castlemilk the night before the battle of Langside (13 May 1568). Carmunnock is in the presbytery of Glasgow and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and includes, quoad sacra, a small portion of Cathcart; the living is worth £212. The parish church, standing in the middle of the village, was built in 1767, and contains 470 sittings; and a public school, with accommodation for 120 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 109, and a grant of £105,5s. Valuation (1881) £7599, 9s. 8d. Pop. (1801) 700, (1831) 692, (1861) 734, (1871) 702, (1881) 721.—Ord. Sur., shs. 22,23,30,31, 1865-67.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Carmunnock ScoP       Lanarkshire ScoCnty       Renfrewshire ScoCnty
Place: Carmunnock

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