Greenhead Moss

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Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park
Greenhead Moss
Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park - panoramio.jpg
The pond area in early spring
Greenhead Moss
Location Wishaw, North Lanarkshire
Nearest town Wishaw
Area100 hectares (1km2)
Established1989
Owned by North Lanarkshire Council

Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park, or simply Greenhead Moss is a nature reserve and public park in the town of Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Despite its small area of only 100 hectares, the park has many different flora and fauna. The most notable feature of the park is the Perchy Pond, an artificial pond known for its many Swans and Amphibians. The area is naturally occurring, and the area around the pond was designated as a Local nature reserve (LNR), in 1989, with the rest of the Moss being designated so by 2013. [1] The main habitat is moorland and Bogs, although flower Meadows and woods are also predominant.

Contents

History

According to park signs, the landscape formed around 10,000 years ago in the Mesolithic, with known habitation occurring as far back as 2,000 years ago. The marshes and peat bogs were used as a source of fuel by the Britons in ancient times. [2] The peat in the moss was used for fuel as late as 1993. Coal mining became the industry of choice during the Industrial Revolution with OS Maps showing small coal mines and railways on the land. These were short lived however.

After the designation of the Pond as an LNR in 1989, the council acquired the land in 1999 and the community trust for the park was established. This new nature reserve lay between the Wishaw neighbourhoods of Greenhead and Cambusnethan and soon was fitted with new pathways, stairs and gates. These regeneration efforts mainly took place during the early 2000s. They were a large success in making the Moss the nature park it is today.

Cambusnethan Bog Body

On 23 March 1932, a local Wishaw worker named Gerald Ronlink was digging peat in the Moss, when he came across a fully-clothed, partly-preserved body buried about two feet down in the bog. Although the clothes were partially damaged, a unique jacket, cap, and leather shoes could be made out. [3] Initial reports identified the body as belonging to a man who died in the 1680s, possibly a murdered Covenanter or Royalist foot soldier. [3] [4] More recent scholarship indicates that the man actually died in the late 18th century, meaning that he could not have been a Covenanter. [5] [4]

The man was around age 50, 5'6" (1.66m) tall, with brown hair and size 7 feet. [6] Cut marks in his cap and right shoe indicate that he may have been stabbed with a sword. It has been theorized that the man was a murder victim. [3] His body was then buried in the wet, isolated bogs of Cambusnethan to avoid discovery. His jacket is now in the collection of the Glasgow Museums. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindow Man</span> Bog body of an Iron Age man found in England

Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England. The remains were found on 1 August 1984 by commercial peat cutters. Lindow Man is not the only bog body to have been found in the moss; Lindow Woman was discovered the year before, and other body parts have also been recovered. The find was described as "one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 1980s" and caused a media sensation. It helped invigorate the study of British bog bodies, which had previously been neglected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Lanarkshire</span> Council area of Scotland

North Lanarkshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian. The council area covers parts of the historic counties of Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, and Stirlingshire. The council is based in Motherwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bog</span> Type of wetland with peat-rich soil

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanarkshire</span> Historic county in Scotland

Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark, is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no longer used for local government purposes, but gives its name to the two modern council areas of North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wishaw</span> Town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland

Wishaw is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the edge of the Clyde Valley, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Glasgow city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clyde Walkway</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambusnethan</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Cambusnethan is a historic parish in North Lanarkshire in Scotland. The largest settlement in the parish is Wishaw, and Cambusnethan now appears on maps as a village almost contiguous with Wishaw. The village is approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, straddling both sides of the A722 on a hill overlooking Wishaw.

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The murder of Zoe Nelson was committed in the Cambusnethan suburb of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland on 22 May 2010. 17-year-old Zoe Nelson's extensively burned remains were found in woodland near a colliery spoil heap known locally as Monkey Hill after her killer constructed a pyre in an attempt to destroy evidence. Forensic pathologist Julia Bell told the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh that the possibilities for a full post mortem were "limited" because the body was too badly burned, but that "some form of throttling or suffocating was the most probable cause of death, which was recorded as 'unascertained'". During their enquiries, police used new media for the first time in a murder investigation, in an effort to reach out to local teenagers who may otherwise have not wanted to communicate with the police. During the trial it also emerged that the victim's sister had withheld the identity of the killer for five days. On 25 March 2011, 21-year-old Robert Bayne was found guilty of her murder and of a second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. The judge deferred sentencing for psychiatric and social background reports to be prepared. On 27 April 2011 Bayne was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of twenty years, for the murder and six years, to be served concurrently, for the second charge.

Greenhead is a small suburb of the town of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is situated to the south of Cambusnethan, and to the west of Waterloo.

Lenzie Moss is a local nature reserve in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is a boggy, marshy area that has not been built on. The reserve comprises lowland raised bogs, which were extensively exploited for peat, and now feature the characteristics of peat cutting, and several acres of deciduous woodland mainly made up of silver birch. The area is a sanctuary for wildlife, including rabbits, deer and foxes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Lochs Wetland Park</span> Urban park in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blawhorn Moss</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenzie Peat Railway</span> Former railway line in Scotland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moine Mhòr</span> Area of raised bog in Argyll and Bute, Scotland

Moine Mhòr encompasses a large area of raised bog in the Kilmartin Glen area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. As well as raised bog there are areas of saltmarsh, brackish grassland, alder carr, fen and woodland, and the variety of habitats at Moine Mhòr provide important habitats for a variety of animal and plant species. The area was declared a national nature reserve (NNR) in 1987, and is now owned and managed by NatureScot. According to NatureScot lowland raised bogs like Moine Mhòr are some of the rarest and most threatened natural wildlife habitats in Europe, due to removal of peat, afforestation and reclamation of farmland.

Ludovic McLellan Mann was a Scottish archaeologist and antiquarian. By profession, Mann was a chartered accountant and insurance broker who was chairman of the firm Mann, Ballantyne & Co, Insurance Brokers and Independent Neutral Advisors that had offices in Glasgow and London. Mann invented consequential fire loss indemnity, in 1899,a form of consequential loss insurance that he patented on 26 January 1900. However, Mann was well known as an amateur archaeologist who had a fascination with the prehistory of south-west Scotland with a particular focus on Argyll and Glasgow areas. His enthusiasm for prehistory was equally matched with his compulsion to promote and publicise his work as much as possible in both the national and international press that included him directing tours of his own excavations and site discoveries. This led to Mann being labelled as Glasgow's original media influencer.

References

  1. "Greenhead Moss". North-Lanarkshire-gov.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  2. "Final Plan" (PDF). www.alvo.org.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Mcl. Mann, Ludovic; Graham, John; Eskdale, Robert G.; Martin, William (1937). "Notes on the Discovery of a body in a peat moss at Cambusnethan". Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. 9 (1): 44–55. JSTOR   24680631 . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 Mullen, Stephen (2020). "Ludovic McLellan Mann and the Cambusnethan bog body". Scottish Archaeological Journal. 42 (Supplement): 71–84. doi:10.3366/saj.2020.0147. ISSN   1471-5767.
  5. Bennett, Helen; Ryder, M. L. (30 November 1977). "A murder victim discovered: clothing and other finds from an early 18th century grave on Arnish Moor, Lewis". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 106: 172–182. doi:10.9750/PSAS.106.172.182. ISSN   2056-743X.
  6. "Cambusnethan Bog Murder". Old Weird Scotland. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  7. "Glasgow Museums Collections Online". collections.glasgowmuseums.com. Retrieved 2 November 2024.

55°46′21″N03°53′42″W / 55.77250°N 3.89500°W / 55.77250; -3.89500