Old Photograph Forth And Clyde Canal Kirkintilloch Scotland

Old photograph of the Forth and Clyde Canal in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. This is a Scottish town and former royal burgh in East Dunbartonshire. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about 8 miles North East of central Glasgow. Kirkintilloch comes from the Gaelic Cair Ceann Tulaich or Cathair Cheann Tulaich, meaning fort at the end of the hill. The fort referred to is the former Roman settlement on the Antonine Wall. Following the Scottish victory in the wars of independence and the subsequent decline of Clan Cumming, the baronies of Kirkintilloch, Lenzie, and Cumbernauld were granted by Robert Bruce to Sir Malcolm Fleming, Sheriff of Dumbarton and a supporter of the Bruce faction in the war. On 3 January 1746, the retreating Jacobite army of Charles Stuart made its way through Kirkintilloch, on its way back from Derby, and on the march to Falkirk and ultimately Culloden. The town was one of the hotbeds of the industrial revolution in Scotland, beginning with the emergence of a booming textile industry in the area. There were 185 weavers in Kirkintilloch by 1790, and in 1867 James Slimon's cotton mill at Kelvinside employed 200 women. With the construction of the Forth and Clyde Canal through the town in 1773, and the establishment of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in 1826, Kirkintilloch developed further as an important transportation hub, inland port, and production centre for iron, coal, nickel, and even small ships.





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