 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Priesthill" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Priesthill
| |
|---|---|
.jpg) Peat Road | |
  Priesthill Location withinGlasgow | |
| OS grid reference | NS531605 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area |
|
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Glasgow |
| Postcode district | G53 6 |
| Dialling code | 0141 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
| 55°48′57″N4°20′36″W / 55.815764°N 4.343219°W /55.815764; -4.343219 | |
Priesthill (Scottish Gaelic:Cnoc an t-Sagairt) is a neighbourhood in the south of theRiver Clyde in theScottish city ofGlasgow. It falls under theGreater Pollok ward of the city council area. TheDarnley neighbourhood is located to the south, on the opposite side of theGlasgow South Western Line railway (both areas are served byPriesthill and Darnley railway station), whileNitshill lies to the west andHousehillwood and theSilverburn Centre shopping complex to the north. TheM77 motorway runs to the east of Priesthill with open farmland beyond.[1]
Priesthill was first mentioned in ancient text as a farm community owned by Walter Steward the progenitor of later Stuart kings and queens.Lord Darnley, husband ofMary, Queen of Scots, owned the land where Priesthill is located. During theReformation, it is alleged a Catholic priest was hanged from a tree near Darnley Lane on the edge of the area, which is now called Priesthill to commemorate the occasion. More than likely the area was named after Priesthill Near Muirkirk, some twenty miles to the south over open country in Ayrshire.[2] Others allege that Priesthill was named after an ancient church that stood at the top of the hill on Stewart land. However, there is no historical or viva voce testimony to validate the claim. It is also said that Mary and Darnley did their courting near Darnley Lane. An ancient tree still stands at the end of the Darnley lane, which is now adjacent to a main highway (A726).
Once part the parish ofEastwood inRenfrewshire, the area was encompassed within Glasgow at the same time asPollokshaws in the 1910s. Priesthill was one of the earliest attempts made by the Glasgow local government to relocate families from the outdated central tenements ofGorbals,Pollokshaws and other districts. Several homeless families were housed there in or around 1948–1950.
St Robert Bellarmine Secondary and other public schools were built to educate the influx of new residents in the early 1950s.[3] The hills beyond Priesthill were farmed until the 1960s and formed part of theKennishead farm owned by Sir John Maxwell. This land was bought byGlasgow Corporation for housing purposes and theDarnley development was built there. Eastwoodmains, adjacent toArden and Priesthill, was being farmed by the MacDonald family into the 1960s; this land was taken partially to make way for the newM77 motorway. The houses built by the local government in the 1950s[4] were mostly condemned and levelled in the 2000s and the land used for a mixture of private and public housing developments.[5] Others were refurbished in the 1980s, but required further substantial investment by the 2010s.[6]
Media related toPriesthill, Glasgow at Wikimedia Commons