Assortment of entombments

My favourite walk from Glasgow is in the Kilpartick hills to the north of Glasgow. After a few fields in the Cochno Estate owned by Glasgow University (where if you are in luck you can see the cows with plugs in their sides the vets use to sample their stomach contents) some steep open moorland takes you up to the wilds of Jaw Reservoir. It used to be stocked with trout but that no longer seems to be the case with no fishermen ever there these days.

I've started to begin my walk in a narrow strip of woodland and have in the past followed its crooked shape for quite a long way round the fields, which though the ground is relatively clear the best path isn't always obvious. I could hardly believe my eyes today when I came across a small graveyard. with only 3 burials in it in the woods on a slightly elevated point. It must have been built in the time when Glasgow was no more than a village and other places long since swallowed up by the urban expansion like Rutherglen were distinct burghs. I took some pictures and gleaned this information (but I missed photographing the first wife's details, oops).

Anne Henrietta Bruce (infant daughter of Anne) died 22/10/1876

Claud Hamilton Hamilton (St Barns, Cochna and Dunmore) 10/04/1823 - 20/08/1900

Henrieta Anne Bruce 28/06/1850 - 27/01/1911 (married to Claud)

Interesting that Claud married Anne, 27 years his younger, though she was only a widow for about ten years. I wonder if he anticipated a large family?

I think it is quite unusual to find a private graveyard. I'd be interested to know what the law has been on it. The only other remotely located grave I've seen is a mausoleum on the uninhabited, wild and isolated western side of the island of Rum.

There were a few trees down from the recent storms. The Rhododendrons had suffered too. One pine tree near the graves had seeded over bedrock so its roots were just below the surface. Its amazing that it had grown to a really mature size without previously succumbing to a gale.

A pair of buzzards are always up in the air calling out over the fields when I am there - one of them flew low down and perched on a distant branch - I could see it through my binoculars on a bough, making its large size obvious and impressive. I tried to get a bit nearer but it was off before I could get near.

I make an effort (small one usually!) when out walking to take any litter away. One time someone left a big white Marks and Spencer's towel lying on the ground. Its a bit beyond me how anyone out appreciating the hills can leave litter and consider themselves sane. One time on TV the danger to wildlife of leaving bottles was explained; that small things crawl in and can't get back out the slippery sides, then predators try to get in to scavenge and get trapped themselves. I've never actually seen this but in one of the cans I picked up there was a small shrew, dead of course. An added danger with the ring pulls is the bit left in the can, can let an animal squeeze past on the way in but not on the way out. I was glad to have liberated the shrew from its metal entombment, glad too at it being extra worthwhile taking away bottles/cans. Angry at whoever had left the can there. They are tiny creatures shrews, to fit through a ring-pull.

I was only out for a stroll since I had to drive nearby for an estimate. Plus it being my first day of feeling better after being fluey. I passed three ladies aged about 50-ish dressed up to the 9's for a hill walk. Gore-tex 9's that is. They could have coped with a minus 30 windchill!

Once up at Jaw Reservoir it felt literally like I was recharging my batteries. As if energy was flowing into me. Feeling like that will always make me wonder about why I don't live nearer the country. One day soon I might just have to buy a house in Aviemore to get away to. But this walk for example is only 7 miles drive from Partick.

The car park I use is not the best place to leave my van. I saw the police last time I was there. Today at the start a lone car with a lady in it was sitting talking on her phone, leaving soon after I got there. On my return a similar thing happened with a young guy in a BMW, left as soon as I got there.

I'm writing this now a few days later - I googled Claud Hamilton Hamilton and got a website called thePeerage.com it says of him:

Claud Hamilton Hamilton, 12th of Barns1
M, #23028, d. 30 August 1900Last Edited=24 May 2007
Claud Hamilton Hamilton, 12th of Barns married, secondly, Hon. Henrietta Anne Bruce, daughter of Robert Bruce and Jane Dalrymple Hamilton Fergusson, on 26 November 1874.1 He died on 30 August 1900.1 Claud Hamilton Hamilton, 12th of Barns lived at Dunmore Park, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland.1 He lived at Cochno, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.1 He was also known as 12th of Barns. He lived at Barns, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.).1 He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.).1

Which confirms the loss of his first wife (and child). There is a slight discrepancy in the exact day of his death but it could just be a typing error with 20 becoming 30.