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Kerelaw

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:50 am
by michaelm
Hadn't been up Kerelaw way for a while so decided to take a wee donner up there yesterday.
I took one or two pics, but first here's a couple from earlier this year (4th Feb)

There's usually always a rope swing to be found over the Burn - much the same as when I was a youngster.
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I remember when they installed this drainage pipe.
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Part of the Castle Ruins today (12th Oct)
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Autumn's definitely here. The Burn is to the right in this pic - where the fallen
tree is.
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Burn to the left in this one. There hasn't been very much rain recently so the water
is fairly low at the minute. Mind you, I'm sure that'll no' be long in changin'.
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The Bridge over the Burn at the Penny Farthing. The drainage pipe in the second pic is quite close to here on the left. Just a few yards further on from the Bridge on the left hand side was an area we kids at the time knew as 'The Gully' and if memory serves me right, that was where the best rope swing was.
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Some Cattle in the field next to the Penny Farthing.
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Who you lookin' at?!!
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This last pic is fairly innocuous looking but it's actually where the water enters the drainage pipe shown earlier - just below those wee trees in the centre. This is just a hundred or so yards up from Hillhead rd. I'm sure the pipe must have been installed in the very early 70's as I remember before they connected it up myself and some pals going some way into it for a bit of adventure.
It runs under the road from here and then for a few hundred yards below the field those Cattle are in before emptying into the Burn at Kerelaw.
Exile mentioned in another topic about the wee narrow Burn which used to run down the side of Elms Place etc. It's obviously no longer there so I presume that when they came to build Campbell Ave/Cambuskeith/ they thought it might become problematic, so decided to divert it from here via this underground pipe.
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Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 7:14 am
by Vivc113
Great pix. Cannae beat the colours at this time of year!!!!

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 5:08 pm
by iain
Yep, nice photos. It's a small but very attractive bit of woodland. The last two landscape photos before the cows are especially good!

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 3:55 am
by Jim McCreadie
Good photos there. I seem to recall the Campbell family (of Kenneth Campbell VC) were the last family to live in Kerelaw House or is my memory tricking me?

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 5:37 am
by morag
Lovely photos, though my heart is a wee bit sore.

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 7:40 am
by Vivc113
Jim McCreadie wrote:Good photos there. I seem to recall the Campbell family (of Kenneth Campbell VC) were the last family to live in Kerelaw House or is my memory tricking me?
Correct!!!

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 7:50 am
by morag
Can't quite remember names or dates but there was a man there, Thompson, caretaker an, as I walked my wee collie dog often by there, at one time a caravan thing with a Mr. Frew? as a watchman, he'd always invite me and Jet in and give me a cup of tea and reminisce. He was old, and lonely, so Jet and I kept him company as long as we could.

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 9:19 pm
by Catherine Belle
[quote="michaelm"]

There's usually always a rope swing to be found over the Burn - much the same as when I was a youngster.]/[quote]
I Remember the rope swing. :)

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 11:43 pm
by Jim McCreadie
I'm going back to the late 50s, but if memory serves me correctly, my Dad knew an Eric Thompson who I think used to "caretake" the Estate. As he and Dad were both doggie men, he allowed Dad to exercise the dogs chasing wild rabbits.

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:53 am
by exile
Jim McCreadie wrote:I'm going back to the late 50s, but if memory serves me correctly, my Dad knew an Eric Thompson who I think used to "caretake" the Estate.
I never knew his first name until now, Jim, but to us boys he was "Toamsin!", as in "Run!", when he materialised to hunt us during a game of One-Man-Hunt some Summer evening.
He was said to kick your arse - literally - if he caught you.

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:27 pm
by Vivc113
If only folk like him were still around.

Mind you... With today's laws he would wind up arrested for just trying to make folk respect things.

Re: Kerelaw

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 2:59 pm
by 5siamese7
When we were kids sometime we would play up at Kerelaw. One evening we were in the burn near the wee bridge when this bloke shouted at me that if I moved his dog would tear me to pieces. He said he had been trying to catch me all week and was going to sort me out for calling him names. I assured him it wasn't me but he insisted it was. I had jet black hair and was wearing a red jumper and this fitted the description of his tormentor. Fortunately the real guy turned up and called him names and ran off. He was furious but realised I had been telling the truth and he let me go with the warning never to come back there again. The tormenter was a classmate of mine and at school the next day we discussed what had happened and he thought it was a great laugh. That afternoon I met his big brother who seemed to think it was beneath his dignity to speak to a kid younger than him. He kicked me right up the bum and the fact that he was wearing winkle pickers allowed him to hit the right spot. I could hardly sit down for three days and when I told his younger brother he laughed his head off and said he would do the same to him. Needless to say I gave the older brother a wide berth. Fortunately he left school soon after and I never saw him again. Scotland have my bones.