Priesthill
Encyclopedia
Priesthill is a district
District
Districts are a type of administrative division, in some countries managed by a local government. They vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, or subdivisions of municipalities.-Austria:...

 south of the River Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....

 in the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 city of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

.

Priesthill was one of the earliest attempts made by the Glasgow local government to relocate families from the central tenements of Gorbals
Gorbals
The Gorbals is an area on the south bank of the River Clyde in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. By the late 19th century, it had become over-populated and adversely affected by local industrialisation. Many people lived here because their jobs provided this home and they could not afford their own...

, Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws is a district on the southside of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The housing stock mostly consists of some sandstone tenement housing, tower blocks and modern brick tenement-style buildings...

 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
Lord Darnley
Lord Darnley is a title associated with a Scottish Lordship of Parliament first created in 1356 and tracing a descent to the Dukedom of Richmond in England. Outside the Peerage of Scotland, another Earldom of Darnley was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1729.The first baron was Sir John...

, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, owned the land where Priesthill is located.

During the Reformation
Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...

, 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.

It is also said that Mary and Darnley did their courting near Darnley Lane. An ancient tree still stands at the end of the Darnley lane, which is 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 were 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 the Darnley
Darnley
Darnley is an area in south-west Glasgow, Scotland located on the A727 just west of Arden. During the second half of the 20th Century Darnley has experienced total transformation from being a modest semi-rural community to becoming a significant part of Glasgow's response to a post-war housing...

 development 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
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...

 in the parish of Eastwood
Eastwood, Strathclyde
Eastwood was one of nineteen local government districts in the Strathclyde region of Scotland from 1975 to 1996, lying south-west of the City of Glasgow....

, the area was encompassed within Glasgow at the same time as Pollokshaws. The houses built by the local government in the 50s 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.
Notable former residents of Priesthill include Lestor Pigggot; Hector Rustenstein
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