Drumclog Memorial (and how to find it)

Some years ago, I took friends on a brief tour from my folks' place in East Kilbride to see the battlefield at Drumclog. We never got there. We found Drumclog easily enough. We saw the sign for the memorial and drove in the direction in which it pointed, but we never got there. This year I found out why.

The old place in East Kilbride now belongs to my sister. Other friends were with me, staying there for a few days before we went to England for a Presbytery meeting. On Monday, two days before the meeting was to begin, we did our laundry and repacking for the trip the next day. As the washing on the whirly-gig and the winter-dike had no need of our help to dry, it was decided that we should go out for a drive. In the hope that it would not be a deja vu day, I suggested Drumclog. So, off we went.

Drumclog village was there on the A71, just like before; and the sign pointed up Meadowfoot Road, just as it had done all those years ago. We began our search. We drove up and down the singletrack road, but there was no sight of a stone obelisk anywhere. The deja vu thing was getting awfully groundhog-like.

We stopped at a nicely refinished cottage to ask for directions. The lady of the house came to the door and I asked her if she could give me directions to the memorial. Disembodied and, I have to say, derisive laughter came from inside the dwelling. The lady had to admit her ignorance. We headed back toward the village.

There we met a tradesman returning to his house. We asked him and he gave us the necessary directions: after the manner of the country. We were on the correct road, but facing in the wrong direction, We had to turn around, go back the way we had come, drive along till we came to the Y-junction (at which we had turned back before), keep on the road to the right, follow it as it took a slow U-turn, watch the corner at the big house (Stobieside), and we should find it just past the old school. There it was, right where he said. It is a pity that he does not contribute to Google Maps and Wikipedia.

The simplest way to find the Drumclog Battlefield Memorial is to get directions to Westertoun Farm, Strathaven, Lanarkshire, ML10 6QL. There is also a plaque from the original memorial at the church in Drumclog village.