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Cowlairs House

Glasgow University Library, Special Collections, Dougan Collection

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Cowlairs House

Cowlairs House, photographed in 1870 by Thomas Annan. The house was built in 1824.

The Cowlairs estate belonged to Alexander Williamson of Petershill in the mid-18th century, and he built a house there. It passed through many hands before it was acquired by the distiller John Gourlay in 1813, and he built a new mansion in front of the older house. The distiller is commemorated in the name Gourlay Street.

The Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway crossed the Cowlairs estate when it opened in 1842 and the company built its engineering works there. The North British Railway Co acquired the E & G in 1865, and Cowlairs became the largest railway works in Scotland. The works closed in 1969.

Reference: Sp Coll Dougan Add. 73

Glasgow University Library, Special Collections

Keywords:
Brown, Gourlay & Co, country houses, Cowlairs House, Cowlairs Park, Cowlairs Railway Works, distillers, Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway Co, John Gourlay & Co, mansions, North British Railway Co, Port Dundas Distillery, railway engineering, railways



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