| by Robert Murray The name Calder in this area, it is said, comes from the language of the Britons who inhabited this area hundreds of years ago. 'caleto - durban' from which Calder derives means 'fast flowing river'. The gaelic describes it as 'strong running water' and that is also pertinant because there is a Calder in the far north of Caithness. An introduction to the album "Sweet Calder ! On thy thorny braes, At ease were spent my infant days" - John Struthers. There are five rivers in Scotland named Calder. Three of these are in Lanarkshire. There is the North Calder Water which is featured in this album, the South Calder Water and the Rotten Calder. All three discharge into the Clyde within a few miles of each other. The South Calder at Strathclyde Loch & thence the Clyde via the sluice near the boating centre. The Rotten Calder empties into the Clyde just a short distance down river from the "North" across from Daldowie haugh. These "Rivers" would in most countries be regarded as merely creeks or streams but we call them rivers, and rightly so. And when in spate they can be powerful and dangerous. The source of the North Calder is the Black Loch just south of the village of High Limerigg which is approx. 700ft. above sea level on the Slamannan Plateau, almost bang in the middle of the Forth/Clyde isthmus and on the watershed between the east and west coasts of Scotland. It is a very short river - a distance of approx. 12 miles from source to the Clyde. This gives an average drop of over 50ft. for each mile of its length which is considerable for a lowland river. All water courses in this area flow eastwards towards the Forth and the North Calder takes that direction too for a short distance before defying nature and turning south west. 
The Black Loch, the North Calder flows out from the dam Like all rivers she starts as but a wee burn as she meanders through the peat of the plateau and it takes her many miles before she resembles what we know of her in the Baillieston area. The North Calder becomes the Hillend resevoir at Forrestfield that stretches to Caldercruix - the resevoir is also fed by a supply from the higher (also man-made)Lily Loch. The construction of both were financed by the Forth & Clyde Canal Co. to create a reliable and constant water supply for it. The supply of course flowed along the North Calder and thence into the Monkland Canal. All canals loose water through evaporation and seepage and this must be replaced to maintain depth. The Monkland was - in effect - used as an aqueduct all the way to Port Dundas in Glasgow. The benefit for the Monkland Canal Co. was that they got a water supply for free. The resevoir was constructed in 1799 and is now owned by British Waterways - the (eventual) successors to the Forth & Clyde Canal Co. This was the first industrial use made of the river. It escapes from the resevoir east of Caldercruix by way of a sluice under the dam and it is here that the river enters what the geologists call an 'incised river valley' which it remains in for the rest of its journey to the Clyde. A noticeable increase and strength of flow is now apparent but its still no more than a strong burn as it loops its way west below Caldercruix (crooks of the Calder) to Plains and Moffat Mills. It is below Gartness that it gains more volume when the Shotts burn flowing from the Roughrigg resevoir (which was another F & C financed dam) joins it. Through the outskirts of Chapelhall it cuts its way through ravines towards Calderbank where it takes a sharp turn to the west and it is here that this river first made a significant contribution to the Industrial Revolution when it was used as a source for the large Ironworks on its northen bank. A short distance downstream it is dammed (1792) and it is at this point water flows from it into the eastern terminus of the Monkland canal at Woodhall. For a half a mile or so the canal has a current due to the inflow, this isn't a common sight on a canal. Further evidence of the river's use by industry is more often noticed downstream of these points. In 1801 a hugely important discovery was made in the riverbed - near the Cairnhill estate, by Airdrie when David Mushet (a pioneer in the making of steel) found blackband ironstone, this find was an important landmark in the resulting iron & steel industries which appeared in the area - making the Monklands, Scotland's most important industrial area.Throughout its course as it twisted through the Monklands the river has been used by many and a variety of industries over the past 3 centuries (and most likely long before that), corn mills, flax mills, coal mines, iron foundrys and a host of other uses were made of the river's water and power. The most important area of industrial activity nearest Baillieston was the old (and now long forgotten) village of Luggiebank situated at the bottom of Langmuir Rd. near Bargeddie. Strategically placed on the conflunece of the Luggie burn and the North Calder it was within a few hundred metres of 4 or 5 coal mines, it was criss-crossed by mineral railways which transported coal from the Bredisholms, Nackerty, Kirkshaws and Braehead pits to the Cuilhill gullet where the coal was loaded onto barges and shipped to Glasgow. There were at least 3 iron foundrys an "Oil Works" and many other supporting activities. Some remains have been photographed (included in the following album) and a walk about the area will reveal to an observant eye the contours of the old railway embankments. 
The 5ft. waterfall in the ravine downstream of Aitkenhead Bridge The downside of all this was that the river became heavily polluted, the water undrinkable and fish life totally vanished, it is only in the past twenty years - as heavy industry closed down - that "life" has come back to the river. It is very heartening that fish can now be found along its entire course, these include perch, tench, trout and eel. Herons, deer, red foxes, American mink, grey & red squirrels can often be seen along the valley and in at least two (secret) locations on the lower reaches there is Badger sets. Sadly, unlike other tributaries of the Clyde no Atlantic Salmon are yet found in the North Calder, this it seems is due to a lack of clean headwaters streams with suitable grades of gravel beds, which are required for successful spawning. Its likely that the building of the resevoir at Hillend is the cause. In the Baillieston area there were many coal mines and particularly in the Ellismuir and Bredisholm lands but little industry actually on the river, only the corn mill (the New Miln) on the south side of the haugh at Calderpark and the Calderbank pits on the north side used the river's water. At Bredisholm the Brochs Moss Burn joins, this burn originally rose from a marshy area east of the present Baillieston 'lights' - it still does though it is buried in the drainage system now. Further downstream the river enters the ravine at the ancient land of Blackyairds which George Bogle of Daldowie changed to Calderbank when he purchased it in 1796. This area - on both banks for the next kilometre or so - contains an area of almost 12 hectares of ancient policy woodland teeming with wildlife. There are still remains of the Calderbank coal mine on the river just below the cliffs at Calderpark and I found a set of bogey wheels on the riverbed in the summer of 2003. The mine employed a substantial number of men over a production period of 45 years or so, it ceased production in the late 1920's. The river below the sandstone rock face here, where it takes an acute eastward turn was always known locally as the 'Falls' but in fact its official geographic name is 'Channel Banks'. Onwards to the great loop round Calderpark haugh and in the shadow of the impressive heights of Calderbraes dense with broad leaved forest on its steep banks once stood the above mentioned new miln. It was a corn mill built around 1730 and a dam was built across the river at the easterly extremity of the haugh and some flow diverted into a lade which crossed the haugh to the mill, the flow was then returned to the river from the mill. Only a few pieces of sandstone remain of the mill - lying in the undergrowth right on the riverbank. | 
