IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Glen View, DUMBARTON, G82 4DB

Relatively new build houses in the Vale.

The photograph was taken from the top of Image, and is a view along the buildings on Main Street. Note the wall just to the left of the road. The name Main Street applies not just to the road beside which these buildings stand, on the near side of the wall, but also to the main road for traffic; that road is on the other side of the wall, and runs in the same direction.

The postbox has an E VII R cipher and is located at the junction of Cardross Road (right foreground) and Main Street.

I have shown this memorial because it is specifically mentioned in the listing text (see the end-note for the link); for the other one mentioned there, see Image (misspelled "Hathieson" in the listing text). The Murray Memorial is there described as "Ruskinian Gothic" with an "exotic lotus leaf finial", which, in this picture, can be seen beside the base of the memorial. The listing also states that the structure commemorates "William Murray, died 1872", but that date applies instead to his wife (see below). The memorial stands beside the kirkyard's southern boundary wall. The base of the structure bears the names of the memorial sculptors: "McArthur and McLaren, Renton". The main inscription is as follows, where quirks of word-spacing are reproduced as on the stone; the reading of some figures may be uncertain: "Erected by William Murray in memory of Janet Campbell, his wife, died 17th September 1872, aged 52 years. Hugh Murray, his son, died 13th January 1871, aged 25 years. Alexander Murray, his son, who died at Hongkong, 17th July 1877, aged 30 years. Also two of his grand children, John, and Janet, who died in infancy. The above William Murray, died 10th July 1889, aged 74 years. David Murray, his son, died 5th June 1890, aged 30 years. Also William, and Isabella, who died in infancy." An additional panel below this reads: "Janet Murray, his daughter, died 18th Jan'y 1895, aged 36 years."

Several of the old gravestones in the kirkyard of the ruined Millburn Church are of historic interest. For example, two nieces of Highland Mary are buried here. The present photograph shows the resting place of one of them, namely, Mary Anderson; for the other, Ann Anderson, see Image The gravestone of Mary Robertson is located in the part of the kirkyard that is to the south of the ruined church; that area is shown in Image As that picture reveals, the church is in a sorry state; see Image for another view, and for an explanation. For an earlier picture, showing the building intact, see Image This gravestone is likewise in poor condition. The part in front was clearly the top of the stone, and the date visible on it is 1859. The name Mary Robertson can also be seen there. She died in October 1830. The remainder of the stone is lying prone behind it, and the last of the names listed there is Mary Anderson. The text is rather worn, but, as recorded in "Dunbartonshire Monumental Inscriptions (pre 1855)" [1979; John Fowler Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell], she died on the 27th of July, 1877, aged 72. This Mary Anderson was a niece of "Highland Mary", Margaret Campbell(*), on whom see the Image Highland Mary's sister Annie married James Anderson. Their two youngest daughters were Mary, who married Thomas Robertson, and who is the Mary Anderson named on this stone, and Ann, who married Matthew Turnbull: Image For more on the Anderson sisters, see the article about the church on page 11 of the "Lennox Herald" issue of the 23rd of January, 2009, and the follow-up correspondence in the issues of the 6th of March and the 13th of March of the same year. (*) Highland Mary's name is usually given as Mary Campbell, but as Ian McIntyre writes on page 79 of his "Robert Burns: A Life" (2009), "James Mackay ... established, by trawling through the Dunoon register of births, now in New Register House, Edinburgh, that the girl's name was not Mary but Margaret". He also notes in passing that the two names are more similar in Gaelic than in English.

This is a side view of the church that is shown from the front in Image (where the spire is intact) and in Image See Image for another view. At the time this picture was submitted, the category A listed building was being left to go to ruin. The listed building report cited in the end-note provides further details, and the book cited there gives more details about the building's early history, and the succession of ministers. The same work notes that, before the kirkyard was provided at Millburn, the people of Renton had been buried in the graveyard of the Relief Church (later U.P.); at West Bridgend in Dumbarton; in Bonhill churchyard; or in the parish churchyard at Cardross.

For other views, see Image (an older view where the spire is intact), Image, and Image Click on the end-note title for related images.

For a similar view in snow, see Image An older view, Image, shows the spire intact. Click on the end-note title for other pictures.

For a similar view in snow, see Image An older view, Image, shows the spire intact. Click on the end-note title for other pictures.

Comparison with an earlier picture, Image, in which the spire is shown intact, reveals that the present photograph was taken from close to the edge of the kirkyard, near the main road. Click on the end-note title for related pictures.