East Kilbride on the 1864 OS map, showing the bump in the road
I was looking at the NLS maps site to figure out the route of an old road in East Kilbride when I noticed a bump in an otherwise straight road. When I compared it to Google maps, I realised that the line of this road matched that of Morrishall Road in Calderwood.
More interesting, although Morrishall Road ends at St Leonards Road, the bump coincided with a clump of trees. When I looked at Google Street View, there was only a slightly raised bit of open ground with three trees on top.
So why did the road go around it? What was causing the bump? Very curious.
Plus, Husband pointed out that behind the modern houses, the landscape dips quite steeply, so maybe the road was altering to avoid it. However, when we looked at the map again, we noticed that although the road would drop down the hill, there was what appears to be another lane or path passing right through the middle of the bump. This second path still exists nowadays and leads towards Calderglen. Strangely, the lane seems to pass through the middle of some fields.
Just beyond the bump, the original road turns sharply left. If this is correct, then the road seems to end nowhere. Was it just following a boundary? Is the bump or circle the place it was leading to? Another mystery.
