Oh I wouldn't get too excited, there really isn't that much left to see, and what is there is probably only of much interest to sad locals like myself...!
Nice area for a walk though, if you enjoy your industrial, agricultural and military history!
The news that the place was once army barracks and the pic posted yesterday have kinda made me more eager to document it, though, and perhaps even try to find any archive material that might exist on it. Curiously, it appears on very few maps, and when it does, it's usually just two rectangular rows in line, with no other markings - perhaps the army thing is why it seems so secretive!
Anyways, here's a pictorial overview of what's there now, split into a few posts cos there's about 23 pics!
First view is a panormama I've posted elsewhere, taken from the top of the bing behind Newton Village. This gives a good overview of the area in the pics. This bing was the site of Newton Colliery, and there are remains of concrete, brick and railway structures scattered around it. I'd always presumed that Fin Me Oot was built to house workers from these pits, since this is where the path leading from it comes out - seems a rather odd place to provide a path to if no one actually works there! Anyways, on the left is the bend in the Clyde at Daldowie, snaking round past Clydeway Golf Range, which itself is built on the site of Haughead Colliery. The golf range is a long, shiny range of buildings to the left of the grassy fields in the middle distance. A line of trees leads from there to the railway line - this was another spur that served the colliery from the line between Uddingston and Newton stations, which you can see still running up the right of the pic. the lower levels of the bing are in the foreground of the pic, beyond which it drops very steeply indeed to the Rotten Calder, which flows from right to left in the pic, before joining the Clyde. If you look in the furthest away grassy field to the right of the railway line, you'll see the road to Fin Me Oot cutting across the field diagonally off Blantyre Farm Rd, which runs in front of the tree-covered hill behind that grassy field. Approach to Fin Me Oot from the point where the camera is is made by a path through the central clump of trees right in the middle of the pic.
A closer shot of the tack to Fin Me Oot off Blantyre Farm Rd. You can see where the track widens at the bottom, and turns right to the flat, terraced area dug into the slope of the field. This is where the houses were. You can also just make out the bench at the bottom left of the track! Incidentally, the tree-covered hill in the distance, behind Blantyre Farm Rd, was an early example of regeneration, and was planted to cover up the remains of Blantyrefereme Brickworks and Colliery.
OK, switching to the opposite end now, this is the start of the track as seen from Blantyre Farm Rd - ignore the sign, which is still there, despite the bridge having been repaired.
Making our way down the track from the gate in the previous pic now...
...and we reach the bench. This has been here in one form or another for at least 15 years I'd say, I think it was built by some old fellas who liked to sit and gab about the place. It's been vandalised numerous times, alas, and currently sports some rather deadly sharp nails sticking out at head height! The track here curves gently to the right and goes under the railway, whilst the branch to the left was where the houses themselves were.
The bench itself - it used to say Caldervale above the Fin Me Oot sign.
A wee panorama shot of the bench and the track that takes you under the railway.
And another one showing how the flat terrace the houses were built on is dug into the slope of the field.
More soon...