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Darleith Road, DUMBARTON, G82 5PG

Part of one of the woodland walks.

Built from 1889-90 (Honeyman and Keppie), this building is used for various community functions. It is viewed here from Main Road. The building replaces an earlier structure which was built by the Geils family (of Geilston), and which was destroyed by fire. An inscription on a gable-head (the one above the entrance on the right) reads "erected 1889 in memory of JTG": Image On the person commemorated there, see Image and Image The inscription above the entrance on the left is simply "The Geilston Hall". See Image for another picture of the building.

For the whole building, see Image and Image This detail is from above the entrance that appears on the right in those pictures. "Erected 1889 in Memoriam JTG". (Or ITG, depending on how the first glyph is read.) As described at the first of the above links, the previous Geilston Halls, which was on the same site, had been destroyed by fire. The JTG/ITG commemorated by this inscription on the second building is, I believe, the Joseph Tucker Geils whose initials also appear on an old well in nearby Geilston Gardens: Image

The roots of an oak tree and the ivy that is growing on it both cling on to the rocks beside the Geilston Burn.

The burn flows through the NTS garden.

Built in the late 19th Century, Geilston Hall is rumoured to be an early design of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Shady walk along burn at Geilston at springtime

The developing flower spike and leaves of a Gunnera manicata look quite alien in appearance.

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