Rouken Glen Park, Giffnock

After having dropped my Aunt Nancy off back home after the festivities, I had a quick walk round the wonderful Rouken Glen Park to get a blip. Here is the waterfall in the park, which I decided to capture in black and white as the weather was really drab, so there was not much difference between being taken in colour of black and white.

The lands of Rouken Glen Park originally belonged to the Scottish Crown, and then to the Earl of Eglinton, presented to Hugh Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Eglinton on the marriage of his son in the year 1530 by James V. It takes its name from the old Rock End Meal Mill in the glen, which dates back to the early 16th century. The remains of the meal mill can be seen at the foot of the waterfall, deep within the foliage and rhodedendron bushes high on the slope away from the pathway. Amongst the park's owners were the Crum family of Thornliebank and Archibald Cameron Corbett, M.P. for Tradeston, Glasgow (later Lord Rowallan) who gifted the estate and mansion house to the citizens of Renfrewshire. It was officially opened on 25 May 1906 and leased to Eastwood District Council (now East Renfrewshire Council) in June, 1984.

The glen has many of the typical features of an Edwardian urban park, such as a boating pond started in 1923 by Sir Robert McAlpine to replace a former curling pond. Rouken Glen includes a large waterfall surrounded by steep woodland; the waterfall is based on a natural waterfall, doubled in height to form a reservoir to supply the printworks downstream at Thornliebank during the early 19th century. There is a walled garden in the grounds of the former manor, Birkenshaw house.