WoSAS Pin 66081
NS 4369 5523
What appears to be a large mansion or country house named 'Fort William' was depicted on Ainslie’s 1796 'Map of the County of Renfrewshire' on the south-eastern side of Neilston Road, north-east of its junction with Tannoch Road. The house does not appear on the earlier maps of Roy, Bleau or Pont, suggesting a date of construction in the latter half of the 18th century. The depiction of Fort William on Ainslie suggests that it may have been a large mansion or country house rather than a fortification. Certainly, the symbol employed is different from that used to indicate the location of the various farms in the area, which are shown as simple black rectangles. The illustration of Fort William is closer in scale to how Ainslie illustrated the mills at Cowden or Crofthead, or the manse at Neilston. This may suggest that it was a sizeable house owned by a wealthy individual or landowner, but one that was not as ornate or significant as Caldwell House. The house does not appear on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, indicating that it was a fairly short-lived occupation, it having been removed before around 1860. Oberlaying modern mapping onto Ainslie suggests that Fort William would have been located in the southern half of the field to the east of Neilston Road, somewhere to the rear of what is now numbers 62-64 and the Uplawmoor Hotel.
Information from David Riddet, 05/04/11
Entered WoSAS (MO'H) 05/04/2011