Priesthill

Priesthill is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde.

Priesthill was one of the earliest attempts made by the Glasgow local government to relocate families from the central tenements of Gorbals Pollockshaws and other districts. Several homeless families were housed there in or around 1948-1950.

Priesthill was first mentioned in ancient text as a farm community owned by Walter Steward the progenitor of later Stuart kings and queens. Lord Darnley husband of Mary Queen of Scots owned the land where Priesthill is located.

During the Reformation, it is alleged a catholic priest was hanged from a tree near Darnley Lane on the edge of the area which is now called Priesthill to commemorate the occasion. Others allege that Priesthill was named after an ancient church that stood at the top of the hill on Stewart land.

The second story being the more palatable. It is also said that Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley did their courting near Darnley Lane and an ancient tree still stands on the spot at the end of the Darnley lane now adjacent to a main highway.

St. Robert's school and other public schools were built to educate the influx of new residents in the early fifties. The hills beyond Priesthill was farmed until the 1960s and formed part of the Kennishead farm owned by Sir John Maxwell. This land was bought by Glasgow Corporation for housing purposes and Darnley was built there. Eastwoodmains adjacent to Arden and Priesthill was being farmed by the MacDonald family into the 60s also and this land was taken partially to make way for the then new motorway.

Once part of East Renfrewshire in the parish of Eastwood, the area was encompassed within Glasgow at the same time as Pollockshaws. The houses built by the local government in the 40s were mostly condemned and levelled and the land was used for a mixture of private and public housing developments. Today it is a thriving community.