Old wellhead, Geilston Gardens

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: Unknown

The well is located within Geilston Gardens, beside one of the footpaths that closely follow the Geilston Burn in the area to the south and east of Image The inscription on the old wellhead is as follows: "10th March 1863 I.T.G. & H.E.G.". The well is shown a couple of decades later in Image I could find no source providing any details about whose initials are on the well. However, I believe the initials to be those of Joseph Tucker Geils and his wife Hester Elizabeth Geils: see Image (An aside: another well, located about two miles from here, at Ardmore Point, has a similar appearance; this is probably, in part, because it likewise has a connection to the Geils family: Image) In that connection, a gable-head at nearby Image has the inscription "erected 1889 in memory of JTG", which almost certainly commemorates the same Joseph T Geils: Image He had a military career in India, as did more than one of his forebears. The Geils family owned Geilston from around the start of the nineteenth century. However, the place-name is much older; the family did not give their name to the place, although it is possible that the spelling of their surname resulted in the place-name's spelling being fixed in a similar form: see Image For more on the Geils family, see the link just given, and Image

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