Gleniffer Braes
[brae = a declivity, hillside, steep road, a knoll, a hill, the bank of a river, the upper part of a country] lookout and carpark is located 6km (3.7 miles) southwest of Paisley on the B775.
The Gleniffer Braes have been a favourite walking-place for centuries. There
there are superb views and walks through the 1,300 acre woodland and moorland
Gleniffer Braes Country Park. In the 1930’s the park was known as Stanely
Braemount Park.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Bonnie Wee Well
“The bonnie wee well on the breist o’ the brae..”
The Bonnie Wee Well, sitting next to the road up the braes, was erected to the memory of poets Hugh McDonald and Robert Tannahill. It is now a listed monument.
Next to the well is the Kingdom House Christian Centre. Construction started
in 1972 when the building was planned to be a hotel, but the plan fell through.
Several other plans were proposed over the years, but Council permission for the
building’s eventual completion was granted in 1997 when a spiritual retreat plan
was approved.
A new , three-mile track costing £203,000 has opened, linking
Paisley with the historic Bonnie Wee Well on the top of the scenic Gleniffer
Braes. It starts at Rannoch Woods, just off the Beith Road, and runs through the
popular Bluebell Woods beauty spot once part of the Laird of Johnstone’s
magnificent Johnstone Castle estate. Crossing Auchenlodment Road, near
Elderslie, the trail then spans the picturesque Brandy Burn before climbing
steeply uphill through Bardrain Wood on to the majestic Gleniffer Braes which
inspired Paisley poet Robert Tannahill 200 years ago. It terminates at the
Bonnie Wee Well.
Ramblers who follow the trail can expect to see a wide range of wildlife,
including foxes, squirrels, deer, hares and buzzards. The 5-year project was
part of an Urban Fringe Project to provide town-dwellers with more access to the
countryside and minimise damage to farmland and livestock. The Project included the installation of ancillary nature trails, benches, viewpoints, fences and footbridges. New trees were planted in suitable areas adjoining the path.
HISTORY
There is a reference to Gleniffyr on a 1654 map of Renfrewshire. Prior to WW2 the area was known as Stanely Braemount Park.
The Peesweep Inn was a small tavern on Gleniffer Braes near where
today’s Lapwing Lodge scout hall is located. It was built in the early 19th
century , and catered to Paisley buddies walking from the town on Sunday
afternoons. Also served were weavers on their way to Ayrshire to sell their
wares. The fine reputation was known throughout the West of Scotland, and became a popular destination for writers and artists from Glasgow. The Inn was named after the black and white moorland bird called the peesweep, or lapwing, which were once common on the braes. In the late 19th century the liquor licence was withdrawn and by 1925 business had dropped so bad, the inn was converted into a private house. Nearby, in 1910, a sanitorium was built ( today’s Lapwing
Lodge). It was used to provide accommodation for patients recovering from
tuberculosis, and was financed and run by threadmaker J & P Coats. In 1934
the building and grounds were handed to the former Renfrew County Council
Hospital Board, and continued to operate the hospital until 1948 when the
National Health Service was founded. It’s use as a sanitorium ended in 1955.
It is now used as a Scouting Lodge.
At the base of the braes is the Stanely Reservoir, which was constructed
between 1837 and 1881. Surrounded by the water is Stanely Castle which is of an
unknown date. The rectangular tower is about 40 feet in height and was
originally designed to afford protection to the principal entrance. Round the
top there is a cornice, the corbels of which project considerably, and seem at
one period to have been surmounted by a series of small turrets. These, with the
entire roof, was gone by the mid 1800’s. Every crevice and seam of the
weather-beaten castle is overrun with vegetation – lichens and mosses and ferns.
During WW2 there was a dummy aerodrome on top of the Braes. It was
illuminated at night to trick enemy aircraft into thinking this was a real
airport, therefore having this bombed instead of a built-up area. There was also a red light on the Gleniffer Braes hillside, near the Foxbar Rifle Range, to
warn country-dwellers of the approach of enemy planes.
Paisley poet Robert Tannahill would visit the area on weekday evenings or on
the Sabbath. He wrote:
Keen blaws the wind o’er the Braes o’ Gleniffer
The auld castle’s turrets
Gleniffer View Residents Association 