page_title: Old Kilpatrick
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Old Kilpatrick / Later history
caption_attribution_description: Old Kilpatrick (foreground) and Erskine Hospital (opposite bank of the Clyde) from Kilpatrick Hills
context_page_description: Old Kilpatrick, is a village in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It has an estimated population of 4,820. It belonged to the parish of Old Kilpatrick which itself was only a few thousand people strong.
  The Forth and Clyde Canal separates Old Kilpatrick from the north bank of the River Clyde which is just a few metres beyond it to the south. The village is about 3 miles west of Clydebank, on the road west to Dumbarton where some say the river becomes the Firth of Clyde. The Great Western Road runs through the village whose immediate western neighbour, on the road and the canal, is Bowling, where the Forth and Clyde Canal meets the river. The modern A82 road runs to the north, between the village and the foot of the Kilpatrick Hills. In the 19th century it was described as being essentially a single street. It's possible the birthplace of Saint Patrick was near Old Kilpatrick.
context_section_description: The parish system was introduced to Scotland in the 13th century. In about 1227, the church and lands of Kilpatrick were given to Paisley Abbey by Maldowen, Earl of Lennox. The parish remained under the supervision of the Abbey until the Reformation in 1560.
  At the Dissolution, the Church property fell into the possession of Lord Sempill. Eventually the lands were conferred on Claude Hamilton (a boy of ten), founder of the Abercorn family. His son James Hamilton was created Lord Abercorn on 5 April 1603, then on 10 July 1606 he was made Earl of Abercorn and Lord of Paisley, Hamilton, Mountcastell and Kilpatrick.
  Kilpatrick was split into two parishes - Old (Wester or West) and New Kilpatrick (also known as Easter or East) by an Act of Parliament on 16 February 1649. This division is unusual because this was a split of both the ecclesiastical and civil parishes and the wealth and stipend of the original parish was shared between the two new parishes. It was more common for new parishes to have "daughter" status, with wealth retained by the central, or cathedral church.
  Old Kilpatrick was created a Burgh of barony in 1697. Its population tripled between 1755 and 1821 as the spinning and weaving industries developed. By 1831 the population was 5,800.
  Today, the north end of the Erskine Bridge, which replaced the Erskine Ferry, lands just above the village, and the village is served by Kilpatrick railway station on the North Clyde Line.
  There are three public houses within Old Kilpatrick; The Twisted Thistle, The Ettrick  and the Glen Lusset. The Twisted Thistle was previously known as the Telstar. After the closure of The Telstar, the building was renovated and reopened in 2014 as The Twisted Thistle.
  There are two annual fêtes which are well attended. Also at the north end of Old Kilpatrick is the local school. Gavinburn Primary School (which was bombed in WW2) where they also have many fêtes annually.
  The minerals edingtonite and thomsonite were first found at Old Kilpatrick.
  In the early 1990s a large housing estate was constructed at the edge of Old Kilpatrick, the one estate was said to double the size of Old Kilpatrick.
  The ancient graveyard surrounding the old parish church still has surviving gravestones from the 17th century.  The current building dates from 1812 and is still in use as the local Church of Scotland parish church, now linked with neighbouring Bowling Parish Church.
  The local Roman Catholic church is St. Patrick's RC Church; the current parish priest is Fr. Francis Wilson. Sadly a fire in August 2015 saw the RC congregation temporarily without a place to worship, taking up the kind offer of the nearby Church of Scotland congregation to use their building, a friendly act of ecumenism in part of Scotland traditionally torn by bigotry.
  There are plans to develop a marine technology hub at the former Royal Navy oil refinery and a wooded community area near the village.
caption: View looking south from the Kilpatrick Hills over the houses of Old Kilpatrick to the River Clyde, with Erskine Hospital visible on the other side of the Clyde
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