Craighall Reservoir, known locally as Craighall Dam, is one of a number of small

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

s, situated around

Neilston Neilston ( sco, Neilstoun, gd, Baile Nèill, ) is a village and parish in East Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the Levern Valley, southwest of Barrhead, south of Paisley, and south-southwest of Renfrew, at t ...

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of ...

, Scotland. The reservoir is located on the western slopes of

Neilston Pad Neilston Pad, referred to locally as ''The Pad'', is a distinctive hill in East Renfrewshire, situated a mile (1.5 km) south of the village of Neilston. Its highest point is and is characterised by a relatively flat summit plateau surroun ...

and has a number of well maintained public access paths. As of August 2020 it has an area of . The reservoir was constructed in 1817 to store flood water that would ensure a constant supply of water to bleach works situated on

Kirkton Burn Kirkton Burn is a burn in East Renfrewshire which rises to the south of Neilston Pad. It flows northeast through Snypes Dam and on to Nether Kirkton, to the east of Neilston. It continues northeast to Barrhead where it runs mostly in culverts be ...

. The reservoir flows into Craig Burn, a small

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

which runs along the western side of

, past Craig o' Neilston farm before joining Kirkton Burn. It first appeared on

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

maps in 1856. The reservoir is owned by Elderslie Estates.

Features

The remains of a stone

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

and small jetty are situated on the western embankment. The period of their construction is unknown. During the 1980s the reservoir was drained and remained empty for a number of years. During this period a number of trees grew in the basin and when it was re-filled the trees became a noticeable characteristic poking through the surface of the water.

Forestry

In 1995 the reservoir was a central focal point in the

Community Woodland project carried out by Elderslie Estates. The project seen thousands of trees planted around the reservoir creating vast

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. In 2019 up to 20,000 of the trees were felled to prevent the spread of

phytophthora ramorum ''Phytophthora ramorum'' is the oomycete (a type of protist) plant pathogen known to cause the disease sudden oak death (SOD). The disease kills oak and other species of trees and has had devastating effects on the oak populations in California a ...

– a fungus-like pathogen that can kill or severely damage larch trees. The felling damaged and disturbed a number of well utilised walking and access routes to the reservoir, most notably on the western side. Although many routes have reappeared the lack of protection from the woodland has caused the ground to retain much more water than it previously did resulting in some areas of marshland and in some cases small bodies of water.

References

{{reflist Reservoirs in Scotland East Renfrewshire