IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Oxhill Road, DUMBARTON, G82 4DH

This area of Dumbarton is called Oxhill, after the Oxen Hill that is depicted here on the first-edition OS map, which was surveyed in 1860. Oxen Hill was described in the OS Object Name Books (compiled in the 1890s) as "a small arable hill on the farm of Braehead". On the second-edition OS map (c.1898), it was called Ox Hill. Oxen Hill or Ox Hill was at Image, and Braehead (formerly Easter Hole*) is shown on the maps at Image, just to the south of the main road; those buildings are now known as Braehead Cottages, or as Image For a view in the opposite direction, see Image In the present view, the junction with Image can be seen on the right, almost opposite the blue car. [(*) W.C.Maugham, in his "Annals of Garelochside" (1897), on page 263, while aware that Easter Hole was simply another name for Foul Hole, seems to treat that farm as separate from Braehead: "Easter Hole or Foul Hole and Braehead succeed, with Sandybraes, Castlehill, and Muirhouses fronting them" (note "them"). However, other printed reference works treat Braehead as a later name for Easter/Foul Hole; compare, for example, "North Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide" (F.A.Walker & F.Sinclair, 1992), on the so-called Bruce's Stables, "built for Easter Hole, later Braehead Farm".]

This street is in the Oxhill area of Dumbarton. The point from which this picture was taken is shown in Image; that item also explains why the area is called Oxhill. In the present photograph, the distant background is taken up by Image, with the housing estate of Bellsmyre laid out in front of them.

See http://www.stmichael.rcglasgow.org.uk/ourchurch

These buildings are called Bruce's Stables, and are named after King Robert I (Robert the Bruce), in whose honour a commemorative flagstaff stands nearby (Image). Robert the Bruce has no real connection with these buildings, which date from a much later period; according to the book "North Clyde Estuary - An Illustrated Architectural Guide" (Frank Arneil Walker with Fiona Sinclair), they date from the late-eighteenth century, and were designed by Charles Ross for Easter Hole, which was later known as Braehead Farm(*). As the book also mentions, there used to be three cottages here; only two of them remain. [(*) See also Image] The same architect, Charles Ross of Greenlaw (near Paisley), also designed the so-called Girnin' Gates (now demolished) which stood at the southern entrance of Garscadden House in Drumchapel. Although apparently self-taught, Ross was, as well as an architect, an amateur archaeologist and nurseryman (he established a nursery at Greenlaw, and the estate plans which he drew up often contained suggestions for agricultural improvement); he was also a cartographer and land surveyor who made significant contributions to the mapping of Renfrewshire and other parts of Scotland in the second half of the eighteenth century. His map of the county of Renfrew (1754) was one of the earliest separately-published county maps of Scotland.

The same road is shown, viewed in the opposite direction, in Image; see that link for the origins of the name Oxhill, which applies to this area as well as to the road. The foreground area of both pictures is the same, though viewed in opposite directions (for example, the same lamp post appears in the foreground of both pictures, and the same figure "20" painted on the road). The present picture was taken from a point opposite the junction with Image

Other contributors' earlier pictures: Image / Image See also Image

Alpha and Omega, and an IHS monogram. For the whole building, see Image, which has links to other contributors' earlier pictures.