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Milngavie is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and a suburb of Glasgow. It is on the Allander Water, at the northwestern edge of Greater Glasgow, and about from Glasgow city centre. It neighbours Bearsden. Milngavie is a commuter town, with much of its working population travelling to Glasgow to work or study. The town is served by Milngavie railway station on the North Clyde Line of the SPT rail network, which links it to Central Glasgow. In 2018 the Scottish Government published statistics for the town showing that the population increased to 13,537 in 6,062 households. The town is also a popular retirement location, with a high number of elderly people living there. The Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, owned by Johnston Press, is a weekly newspaper that covers local events from the schools, town halls, community and government in the area. The paper was established in 1901 and is printed every Wednesday, to be sold on Thursdays. The town is the start point of the West Highland Way long distance footpath which runs northwards for to the town of Fort William. A granite obelisk in the town centre marks the official starting point of the footpath. [edit] History
Milngavie's name is of Gaelic origin. Some early forms of the name include: molendinum de Mylnegawie 1643; molendinum de Milngawie 1643; Mylnegavie-mylne 1643; Mylngawy 1644; Mylnegawie 1647; Millgavie 1752 x 1755. The consistent recurrence of w and v in all these forms casts doubt on the suggested meaning "windmill" (muileann gaoithe) or "windy hill" (meall na gaoithe), for there is no sound in gaoithe which should be represented by a v or w. A more likely suggestion is an origin in "David's mill" (muileann Dhàibhidh), an interpretation which fits well with the early forms of the name, since the bh in that name is pronounced /v/, as represented in the early forms Though this has been regarded as the result of confusion with an unrelated place in nearby Strathblane called Milndavie,[1] it may actually be correct (although the /v/ represented in the spelling of the name is no longer pronounced). The town grew from a country village in the parish of New Kilpatrick to a minor industrial centre in the nineteenth century, with paper mills and bleach works on the Allander River to the north-west of the town centre. Some remnants of this industry remain today on the Cloberfield Industrial Estate. The land surrounding the village comprised several estates with tenant farms, amongst them Barloch, Clober, Craigton, Craigdhu, Dougalston, Douglas Mains and South Mains. Stone-built villas and semi-detached houses were constructed for wealthy citizens to the east of the town centre and around Tannoch Loch when commuting to Glasgow was made possible by the opening of the railway which reached the town in 1863. After World War II a local authority housing scheme was built to the west of the town centre, housing many people relocated from Clydebank which had been badly bombed. The town grew with the addition of private speculative housing developments of bungalows and semi-detached homes at South Mains to the south of the town centre and around Clober, to the west, in the 1950s and 1960s. The town was historically served by routes 13 and 14 of the extensive Glasgow tramway system. Tramway services in Milngavie were withdrawn in 1956 and the entire system was dismantled by September 1962. The Fairways estate was built, starting in 1978 and continued into the 1980s. The town centre was redeveloped to improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety. The central commercial streets were pedestrianised starting in 1974 and many buildings were replaced. A superstore was opened on the fringes of the town centre in the 1990s. In 2008, residents launched a "tongue in cheek" campaign to bring the Olympic games to Milngavie in 2020. Today the town is primarily a dormitory town for the nearby city of Glasgow. [edit] Research Tips
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