Bellsmyre Cottage

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 18 Mar 2009

A detached cottage beside Stirling Road; see Image for context. See also Image There was a cottage called Bellsmyre here at the time of the first-edition OS map (c.1860). The OS Object Name Book describes it as "a cottage on the east side of the Trust Road that leads from Dumbarton to Bonhill". The name Bellsmyre was later given to the large area of housing that appeared to the east and south-east of the cottage after the Second World War. In Dumbarton Cemetery, near the Image, there is a gravestone, dating from the 1870s or 1880s, for the resident of "Bellismyre Cottage, Dumbarton". That form of the name is intermediate between the present-day Bellsmyre, and the much older Belliesmyre, which can be seen on certain old estate plans and in some Valuation Rolls. This older spelling does not appear on any OS maps. The name goes back several centuries. For example, a Teinds Valuation compiled by the parish minister in 1656 includes it among several other local place-names: the relevant entry is for "Guisholme with Belliesmyre" (for "Guisholme", see Image). [The Teinds Valuation referred to above is "The rentall of the stocked teinds of the Parishine of Dumbartane givin up be Mr David Elphingstoune, minister thereof", as given on page 281, in Appendix F, of "Dumbarton Common Good Accounts 1614-60". David Elphinstone, who compiled the Teinds Valuation given in that appendix, was parish minister at Dumbarton for about 30 years, from 1633 onwards.]

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