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Friday, 3rd September 2010

 
Clachan Of Campsie


For centuries the Clachan of Campsie was the site of the Parish Church of Campsie. Remains of the last church to be built there can still be seen in the graveyard. The original church was erected over the reputed grave of St Machan, at the foot of the Glen, and indeed was named after that Saint. The Parish Church of Campsie was moved to Lennoxtown during the 1820s, when the High Church was built. The St Machan' name was later given to the Roman Catholic Church in Lennoxtown, built as St Paul's in 1846.

Campsie Glen's reputation as an unrestricted place of recreation can be credited to John McEarlan (1767-1846), laird of the nearby Ballencleroch Estate. Towards the end of the eighteenth century he decided to make his side of the Glen available to the public, on a point of principle. Public access to the entire Glen was possible from 1830, when Miss Margaret Lennox of Woodhead Estate decided to follow John McEarlan's example. During the remainder of the nineteenth century the Glen grew in popularity. Guidebooks were published and many hundreds of visitors arrived each summer weekend, often in large parties accompanied by musicians.

A key attraction was the Crown Inn (now the Aldessan Gallery), which had been rebuilt by Miss Lennox in 1818 and given into the care of the renowned publican William Muir soon afterwards. Over the years there were many reports of over-exhuberant behaviottr on the part of visitors, so perhaps it came as no surprise when the Crown lost its licence in 1922. It was almost immediately reopened as the Red Tub Tea Rooms and run by a group of well-known local ladies, including Miss Kincaid- : Lennox of Lennox Castle. It this new guise it soon became as famous as it had been as the Crown, but it closed down during World War II and did not reopen afterwards. Nowadays the building houses as a tea room once again, as part of the craft shop known as the Aldessan Gallery.

Visitors to Campsie Glen should note the old parish school, which stands on the left-hand side at the approach to the Clachan, and remember the history of the Aldessan Gallery and its long term importance to the amenity of the Glen. In the adjacent graveyard the remains of the old parish church should be noted, also the mausoleum of the Lennox family. Graves worth looking for include those of William Boick, a Covenanter, John Bell of Antermony, who was famous for his travels to Asia, and William Muir, a local poet whose poems included graphic descriptions of local life two hundred years ago.
 
 

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