Glen Moss

This is a house I remember from childhood, my maternal gran, a little lady that did good by stealth, and a woman whom I adored, used to take me often to The Moss not then a managed reserve but an open area or wetland where we enjoyed watching the wildlife, the birds in particular, but also deer and foxes. I used to love the freedom of playing in this place, the adventures invented in my head, romanticised ideas of war from my commando magazines that I all too soon realised were horribly wrong and that war was a hell on earth with no winners despite what history recounts, history is after all written by the winners!!

The house always reminded me of a dolls house, beautiful in manicured gardens, I used to say when I was grown up I was going to live there, the gulf between my aspirations and reality however mean that will never come to pass, but I still remember the smile on my grans face when I would say this...

The house sits on the site of what was once Glenmosston Model Farm, agriculture was once the main employer in our little village, so much so that the Kilmacolm Farm Society was formed in 1793. By the mid 1830's a number of the smaller farms were swallowed up for housing with streets still bearing the names of these long lost farms, Castlehill, Belmont, Paicemuir and of course Glenmosston itself. Glenmosston Model farm like a lot of these holdings was used to allow urban children an insight to rural life, sadly Glenmosston too soon fell away but the land was retained as greenbelt and still retains the beauty on the edge of our little village.

I hope you enjoy the shot, aspirations of childhood not fulfilled but as I pass now with the twins they too look at this house and say it is one of the most beautiful houses they can imagine... the apples don't fall far from the tree right enough. Enjoy the shot and certainly best viewed in large