Milngavie
Milngavie, (pronounced "Mill–Guy" or "Mull–Guy"), is a town on the northwestern outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies approximately seven miles northwest of Glasgow city centre in East Dunbartonshire. Politically it is within the East Dunbartonshire constituency for the Westminster Parliament and the Clydebank and Milngavie constituency for the Scottish Parliament.
The town is part of the Glasgow urban area (officially the Greater Glasgow Metropolitan Settlement Area) which includes the city and its surrounding towns. Postal addresses are commonly given as "Milngavie, Glasgow" as the town has a Glasgow based postcode.
Milngavie is a commuter suburb, with much of its working population travelling to Glasgow to work or study. The town is served by Milngavie railway station on the North Clyde Line of the SPT rail network, which links it to Central Glasgow. The town is also a very popular retirement location, with an unusually high proportion of senior citizens. In the 2001 census the town had a recorded population of 12,795 in 5,256 households.
Currently the town is perhaps best known as the start of the West Highland Way long distance footpath which runs northwards for 95 miles to the town of Fort William. A granite obelisk in the town centre marks the official starting point of the footpath.
History
Although known today as a dormitory suburb of Glasgow, the town grew from a country village to a minor industrial centre in the nineteenth century with paper mills and bleach works on the Allander River to the north east of the town centre. Some remnants of this industry remain today on the Clober Industrial Estate.
Stone built villas and semi detached houses were constructed for wealthy citizens to the east of the town centre and around Tannoch Loch when commuting to Glasgow was made possible by the opening of the railway, which reached the town in 1863. The town become a burgh, within the county of Dunbartonshire, in 1875 and remained so for 100 years.
After World War II a local authority housing scheme was built to the west of the town centre, housing many people relocated from Clydebank which had been badly bombed. The town grew with the addition of private speculative housing developments of bungalows and semi-detached homes at South Mains to the south of the town centre and around Clober, to the west, in the 1950s and 1960s. The Fairways estate was built in the 1980s and the Mains estate increased the population in the 1990s.
In the early 1980s the town centre was redeveloped to improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety. The central commercial streets were pedestrianised and many buildings replaced. A superstore was opened on the fringes of the town centre in the 1990s.
Current Status
Today Milngavie is linked in the popular imagination with the neighbouring town of Bearsden although their social histories differ. Bearsden grew almost exclusively as a dormitory suburb of Glasgow for the wealthy and professional classes. In that sense both towns now currently fulfil a similar role. The two towns became a single local authority district in 1975, before Scottish Local Government reorganisation in the 1990s re-integrated them with Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs to form East Dunbartonshire, although transport and social networks link the town much more closely with Glasgow itself.
Certain properties in the locale can command amongst the highest house prices in the Glasgow urban area. This has led to its reputation as an exclusive residential area and an aspirational destination for home buyers.
Governmental and tax raising boundaries separate Milngavie and Bearsden, along with other wealthy dormitory suburbs like Newton Mearns and Giffnock, from the City of Glasgow unitary authority area. These concentractions of the city-region's wealthy residents outside Glasgow's boundaries, while working and using facilities in the city but not contributing to the city's coffers, has prompted some to call for tax redirection, however local identity and political forces are strong and any calls for inclusion within Glasgow's boundaries have been rebuffed.
Local Environment
Local beauty spots include Tannoch Loch, Drumclog Moor and the Mugdock Waterworks that sit on high ground to the north of the town amid pleasant landscaping and offer views over the Glasgow region. These waterworks, opened by Queen Victoria, were constructed in the nineteenth century to provide clean drinking water for the city of Glasgow and form the end point of an aquaduct that brings fresh water over twenty miles from Loch Katrine solely through gravitational force.
Mugdock Country Park is located just north of the town.
Pronunciation and Name
The apparent mismatch between the town's written and pronounced names stems from how the name Milngavie was originally translated from Gaelic into English. The Gaelic name for the town is Muillean Dhaibhidh, pronounced "Moolin Ghuh-ee", meaning David's Mill. The Gaelic letter combination "bh" is usually transliterated as a "v" in English, hence Milngavie, despite sometimes being pronounced more like a "w", as in this case.
Schools
High Schools
- Douglas Academy : A state-funded secondary school, which includes a Music School for gifted children. Entry to the music school is by audition and pupils from outwith the area board in the West End of Glasgow.
Primary Schools
- Craigdhu Primary: A state-funded elementary school.
- Clober Primary: A state-funded elementary school.
- St Joseph's Primary School: A state-funded Roman Catholic elementary school.
- Milngavie Primary: A state-funded elementary school.
- Atholl Preparatory School (The Glasgow Academy): A fee paying elementary school that is part of The Glasgow Academy, whose senior school and other departments are located at Colebrooke street in the West End of Glasgow.
Places of Worship
- Allander Evangelical Church
- Cairns Church of Scotland (homepage)
- Milngavie United Reformed Church
- St. Andrew's Episcoplal Church
- St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
- St. Luke's Church of Scotland
- St. Paul's Church of Scotland (homepage)
Originally Milngavie was in the Parish of New Kilpatrick, the church being that of New Kilpatrick in Bearsden, with no formal place of worship in the town until the eighteenth century. Milngavie has three stone built churches dating from the early twentieth century within 500m of each other. Up until the 1970s these three were all Church of Scotland congregations: St.Paul's, Cairns, and St.Luke's. This came about due to the history of the Kirk (Church of Scotland) which saw a multitude of factions and congregations organise, each with varying forms of worship and constitutional arrangements, which subsequently re-integrated. St.Paul's was always in the fold of the Church of Scotland and is the parish church of Milngavie. It was originally housed in a simple grey stone church building above the Station Road beside the Milngavie Primary School before moving to a handsome red sandstone building on the Strathblane Road in 1906. The original building is now apartments. Since 1799 Cairns Church had been located in a building on Mugdock Road close to the 'preaching braes' on Barloch Moor where the congregation's first services had taken place. It moved to its present building on Buchanan Street in 1903 which displays elements of the Glasgow Style of architecture and design. St.Luke's had been built as the Milngavie United Free Church. In the 1970s it was decided that the concentration of churches in one area should be reviewed and a new St.Lukes was built on the western side of the town to serve the residents of Clober. The Roman Catholic Church bought the old St.Luke's Church and moved their congregation to the new premises from a chapel on Buchanan Street at Moor Road which was associated with the neighbouring Roman Catholic Convent of Ladywood which closed in the 1970s.
Sporting Institutions
Glasgow Rangers Football Club has its professional training facility at Auchenhowie Road in the east of the town.
Due to the town's suburban and residential profile it is home to many sporting clubs and facilities.
- Clober Golf Club (homepage)
- Milngavie Golf Club (homepage)
- Esporta (Dougalston) Golf and Fitness Club
- Hilton Park Golf Club
- Milngavie Lawn Tennis Club
- Milngavie Wanderers F.C.
- West of Scotland Hockey Club
- West of Scotland R.F.C.