IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Sycamore Avenue, JOHNSTONE, PA5 0BL

March 1st 2018 - 'The Beast from the East'

The southern edge of the town - a series of streets with a tree-name theme, and Craigston Wood beyond.

This area of Johnstone takes its name from the nearby Johnstone Castle Image Major redevelopment appears to be in progress.

This area of Johnstone takes its name from the nearby Johnstone Castle Image Major redevelopment appears to be in progress. Johnstone Castle Learning Centre on Pine Crescent is in the foreground, with Alder Place beyond. Houses construction us in progress on Elm Drive, with Auchenlodment Primary School beyond. The houses at top left are in Elderslie.

This area of Johnstone takes its name from the nearby Johnstone Castle Image Major redevelopment appears to be in progress. Johnstone Castle Learning Centre on Pine Crescent is in the foreground, with Alder Place beyond. Houses construction us in progress on Elm Drive, with Auchenlodment Primary School beyond.

The setting is rather spoiled by the adjacent pipe (whose run-off has also stained it), but this sundial, dated 1700, is still of interest. It is fixed high on the south-facing wall of Image Its location can be picked out, on the right, in Image This is a vertical direct south dial (see Image), but it has lost its gnomon.

South elevation showing some of the seemingly abandoned building works.

The Category B Listed castle http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/designation/LB35602 is now surrounded by council houses. See also Image

A castle in the middle of a housing scheme on the outskirts of Johnstone. Category B Listed http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB35602 , described as follows on Canmore https://canmore.org.uk/site/43213/johnstone-castle ... ""Johnstoun, an old possession of the Nisbets, came from them to the Wallaces, continued six generations a house of good account, now decayed". W Macfarlane 1907 Johnstone Castle, now situated in a modern housing scheme, was originally named "Easter Cochran" and owned by the family of that ilk, its name changed in 1733 when it was acquired by the Houstons of Johnstone. they added to and altered the former mainly 16th century fortalice in the years that followed. Now that the estate has been taken over by the burgh, most of the extended mansion has been pulled down and only the original part is left, though much scarred by 19th century 'improvements'. It is now used as a store. The castle as it now stands is L-shaped and consists of a comparatively little-altered main block of three storyes and a garret, lying E-W, with a wing, now built in the form of a massive Gothic tower, projecting N and rising a storey higher. Apart from two tiny windows at basement level, and others built up, the wing has been very much altered. The hall, on the first floor of the main block, has also been much altered, but still retains a garderobe and a very deep window embrasure, giving the impression of a nucleus older than the 16th century. N Tranter 1970."