Luggie Water

Luggie Water, Kirkintilloch

Luggie Water, a rivulet of Lanarkshire and the detached district of Dumbartonshire, flowing 17.5 kilometres (10.9 mi) westward and west-north-westward along the boundaries or through the interior of Cumbernauld, New Monkland, Cadder, and Kirkintilloch parishes, till it falls into Kelvin Water at Kirkintilloch town. Except for a brief distance in Kirkintilloch parish, where it possesses some features of beauty, it is a dull, sluggish, ditch-like stream."

The Luggie Water is a river rather than a rivulet whose headwaters rise in the general area of Greengairs and West Fannyside in the administrative council area of North Lanarkshire to the northern outskirts of Kirkintilloch where it merges with the Kelvin.

There would appear to be no single 'source' of this river although some commentators have previously claimed this to be Herd's Hill on Fannyside Muir. There is indeed a drainage ditch choked with rushes and containing little moving water to the west of this hill which initially runs in a southerly direction before taking a south west route and thereafter westerly bearing joined by other ditches along the way before it joins with another burn coming from the south at a place called 'Rumblybugs' next to the road between Wester Glentore farm and Cumbernauld.

The burn from the south - which is the larger of the two contributing streams that make the first notification on maps as Luggie Water after the confluence of the two is in turn an entity also made of drainage ditches from fields to the north east and north of the village of Greengairs.

It is therefore difficult to claim a single source for this river and it can be safely assumed as per the Ordnance Survey that the river called the Luggie Water commences at the confluence of its contributaries at Rumblybugs bridge. From this point to the Luggie's confluence with the Kelvin is a distance of approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) which almost agrees with Groome.

In downstream order after Rumblybugs the burns flowing into the Luggie are;

Cameron Burn - Where it joins the Luggie at Tannoch bridge. The Cameron would appear to be the larger stream of the two.

Shank Burn - Another large burn almost as big as the Luggie empties itself into the Luggie near Garngibboch west of the A73.

Gain Burn - At Auchenkilns Holdings a few hundred metres downstream of Garngibboch bridge.

Mollins Burn - On the eastern edge of the village of Mollinsburn.

Bothlin Burn - At Oxgang in Kirkintilloch. The Bothlin escapes from Bishop Loch it is joined by the Garnkirk Burn east of Davidston farm. The Bothlin is without a doubt the Luggie's major contributing stream. Its source the Bishop loch was a third larger in area than it is today and this is a result of the Forth & Clyde Canal Company buying the water rights and using it as a storage reservoir to supply the canal at Kirkintilloch via the Bothlin. This was done by a canal feeder drawing water from the burn near Claddens by way of a weir and sluice.

As it flows through Kirkintilloch it is crossed by an aqueduct^[1] that carries the Forth & Clyde Canal. After this it is but a short distance until it meets the smaller Kelvin.

Despite Groome's opinion there is more beauty to the banks of the Luggie than he saw for his tardy comments must exclude the stretch of the river through the beautiful glen at Luggiebank and the meanders along its shallow glen west of Mollins.

There is another watercourse in the area of Coatbridge with the same name for which there may be another article.

References

• Ordnance Survey Explorer series scale 1:25 000 Nos. 342 and 349 © Crown Copyright

• Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical", edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

Coordinates: 55°56′N 4°09′W / 55.933°N 4.150°W