IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Luss Road, ALEXANDRIA, G83 0RH

A snow-capped Ben Lomond in the background.

Towards a snowcapped Ben Lomond.

The picture was taken from a point about 150 metres further north along the road than the viewpoint for Image

By Luss Road.

This road is the western entrance into the Levenvale area. Levenvale and Tullichewan (an area of housing on the other side of Luss Road) together make up much of this grid square, so I have included several representative views (compare Image). Apart from a few exceptions like Lomond Road and Lomond Drive (shown here), Argyll/Argyle Avenue (named after Image), and Burns Street, all of which are on the edges of Levenvale, many of the streets in this area are named after political figures: see Image for several examples.

This street is at the south-eastern extremity of the Tullichewan housing estate. Much of this grid square is taken up by Tullichewan and by Levenvale, the latter area of housing being on the other side of the main road (Luss Road); so, for representative views of the grid square, I have included several such street scenes. See also Image, taken from further ahead, around the corner. On the name Tullichewan itself, which long pre-dates this area of housing, see Image

This is the main road leading into Tullichewan, an area of housing on the western side of Luss Road. Tullichewan Road more or less bisects the estate. The name has been associated with this area for a long time, and there used to be a Tullichewan Castle nearby: see, for example, Image In connection with that name, some nineteenth-century authors(*) used the form Tilly-Colquhoun. However, to my mind, that has the appearance of folk etymology; in any case, it is not borne out by early forms of the name. It is quite likely that it contains the Gaelic element "tulach" (knoll, hillock), but the overall meaning is uncertain. (Compare the name Tullochan, at Image, about 5.5 km NNE of here.) By way of illustration, the following are authentic older spellings (although not necessarily the very oldest). The Lennox Cartulary has a charter by Earl Malcolm (before 1333), in which the spelling is "Tulochewyne", quite close to the present form. The following later examples are from the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland (RMS), with the year of the relevant Latin charter given in parentheses: "et tribus Tullequhwnys" (1507); "terras de tribus Tulliquhewnys" (1512); "Tullichquhoneis" (1545); "Tullichewynnis" (also 1545). The various RMS spellings appear to be plural in form, "Tullichewans". In fact, the Latin entries from 1507 and 1512, quoted above, both refer to "the lands of the three Tullichewans". [(*) For example, Joseph Irving, in his "History of Dumbartonshire" (1860), writes that "in the north-west part of Bonhill parish are the lands of Tillichewan, or Tilly-Colquhoun".]

The houses in the background are on Bannachra Crescent (left) and around Hudspeth Court (right).

The Ardenwood estate was built in 1995. The photograph was taken from the main road through Alexandria.

Just to the north of the factory outlets.