The Molendinar Burn is a small tributary of the
Clyde in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, Scotland, now largely culverted. It is popularly associated with
Saint Mungo, who is said to have founded his church on its banks. The name may stem from Mellingdenor, a place mentioned in
Jocelin of Furness's
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...
of Mungo. The further etymology of the name is obscure; the first element may be
Cumbric
Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...
''melin'', meaning "mill".
Historic course (late 1700s)
Richard Thomas' 1795 "map of the town of Glasgow & country seven miles round" clearly shows the course of the burn. The source at that time was a small loch at "Huggenfield" to the north east of the city (the present day
Hogganfield Loch). The course then headed generally south west, passing through the virtually undeveloped areas of Craighead,
Blackhill and
Blochairn
Blochairn (, ) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow, situated north of the River Clyde
The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United King ...
, where it passed under the Monkland Canal. Approaching the city, the course turned south past
Glasgow Cathedral and down the route of the present day Wishart Street, passing under what are now
Duke Street and
Gallowgate to pass in front of St Andrew's Church.
Saltmarket south of Bridgegate did not exist at that time, the burn ran through fields there to enter the Clyde at the present day Clyde Street at Mart Street. Peter Fleming's 1807 "Map of the City of Glasgow and suburbs" shows the city centre area of the burn in greater detail. It can be seen from both of these maps that the burn ran almost entirely above ground at that time.
Present course (2020)
The present source of the burn is Frankfield Loch in
Cardowan. This loch did not exist (or was not mapped) when Thomas published his 1795 map. A short manmade cut connects Frankfield Loch to the distant
Hogganfield Loch. The route from Hogganfield Loch to the Clyde is fairly similar to that of 1795. However the majority of the length of the burn has been culverted in stages since the 1870s. Short stretches of the burn can be seen above ground in Molendinar Park (in the
Blackhill /
Provanmill area) and beside the former Great Eastern Hotel on
Duke Street.
The final stretch from Greendyke to the Clyde was rerouted at some time in the past. The burn now enters the Clyde upstream of the 1795 confluence point, near the Tidal Weir.
Glesga Steve photo, Flickr
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Gallery
File:Elizabeth Walker (née Reynolds)03b.jpg, The Molendinar Burn by Elizabeth Walker, c. 1850
File:Wishart Street, Glasgow - geograph.org.uk - 665042.jpg, Wishart Street, built on top of the culvert carrying the Molendinar Burn
File:The Molendinar Burn (geograph 1663070).jpg, The Molendinar Burn at Duke Street
File:Molendinar_Burn_outfall.jpg, The culverted Molendinar Burn entering the Clyde at Glasgow Green (2020)
References
External links
picture on Flickr
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Rivers of Glasgow
Subterranean rivers of the United Kingdom