Hi Folks
This place brings back a few memories. I used to live in Deanpark in Renfrew when I was a kid, and we used to bring our dogs down here for walks. This was before the Braehead development, but after the building of the distillery and the addition of some pylons in the foreground of the pics.
We're probably talking about 20 years ago, when I was 7 or 8. I remember my Dad and I walked or drove down the cobbled road that you can see in this picture...
http://tinyurl.com/zrpbm I think the new Braehead road that links all the carparks runs along this route and the security fence from the distillery bound it on one side for its length up to the rail bridge.
Anyway, from what I can remember, we used to drive down to the old house to park - my Dad drove a dolemite - how cool!?! I used to get a shot of driving to see if I could beat my Dad at how long I could drive without dropping off the tram lines on the cobbled road... the experience didn't help me get my license right enough - I still can't drive.
I can only remember being at the Shiels House a couple of times. The earliest I can remember, was when the outbuildings beside it were being used as a mechanic's garage. If I remember rightly, the house was uninhabited then but not in disrepair. There was also a small field of wheat which used to get harvested each year - the reason I remember was that I was chasing our dogs round it and my eyes swole up - that was the first time I got hayfever that has stayed with me since. Just up the road, some units opened up beside the Howden factory and the mechanic's guys moved there... I think they're still there and the garage is run by a guy called Andy Alford.
The second time I remember being there will help reveal why the place is called the Butterfly House. It's because a lot of the rooms were covered in butterfly pattern wallpaper. When I must have been about 11 or 12, I can remember being there when the place had been left uninhabited for quite some years. We were out walking the dogs again, and we decided to have a look in the house. We had to be careful because the structure was suffering from fire damage and the floor boards were less than stable. Even so, I can remember asking my Dad about the wallpaper in the place - it looked just like the stuff my sister had in her bedroom at home!
I can't really remember anything else about the place but I'll sleep on it and see what comes back to me. King's Inch was a great place to play - I can even remember watching ship launches from there and playing round the old ruins of what we thought was Renfrew Castle (if such a thing existed!)
Ross