Kildrum


North Lanarkshire

A residential district of central Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire, Kildrum lies a half-mile (1 km) to the northeast of the town centre. This is a mixed public housing development with a wide range of different housing styles. The street naming scheme is based on places and people associated with the poet Robert Burns (1759-96); namely Afton, Ainslie, Clouden, Corbiston, Doon, Ellisland, Glencairn, Kenmore, Kyle, Lamerton, Lochlea, Maclehose, Mossgiel, Moss Knowe and Tarbolton.

Kildrum is shown as a fermtoun on 19th C. maps, but was chosen as the first area for residential development by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC) in 1956. Urgency brought on by inward investment, meant the CDC was not able to design the houses themselves, so they commissioned the Glasgow-based architects Gillespie Kidd and Coia to undertake the work, whose scheme comprised two-storey terraces with flat roofs (completed 1958) and also four- and five-storey blocks of maisonettes with garages below (completed 1961). All of these houses were subsequently altered, primarily replacing the original flat roofs with pitched. Some of the blocks suffered from dampness and structural problems which were later corrected. On Burns Road, in the extreme northeast of the area, are two sixteen-storey and one twenty-storey tower blocks (Morison House, Elliot House and Stuart House) that were built in 1969 and all connected by walkways to a single large parking structure. Later developments have included some private housing.

Kildrum Primary School lies in the core of the district on Ellisland Road, while Cumbernauld High School lies between Kildrum South Roundabout and Kildrum Plantation to the south. Also lying to the south of Kildrum Road is Redburn School, which caters for pupils from 3 to 18 with learning difficulties or physical disabilities. There are three churches; Kildrum Parish Church, built 1962 to designs by Alan Reiach (1910-92), a nondescript Salvation Army church and Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1964). Other facilities include a health centre, YMCA, a post office and a few shops. The YMCA was established in 1960 and occupies the former Kildrum farm buildings which date from the 19th C.


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