File:The former site of Dalquhurn House - geograph.org.uk - 1751264.jpg

English: The former site of Dalquhurn House. In the area shown here, demolition of the few remaining buildings from the old Dalquhurn Dye Works (see 1725100) had already taken place. After a period of inactivity, construction work had begun in earnest. (When the photograph was taken, the area was surrounded by a security fence, but the picture was taken from outside the fence, on the adjoining cycle path; the large building visible in the background, on the left, is part of a bottling and blending plant at Kilmalid, and is located on the other side of the River Leven.)

Note, at the centre of the photograph, an area of flat, vegetation-free soil in front of the large mound (for its context, see 1751370). This location (NS 39238 77801, within a few metres) was once the site of Dalquhurn House, where the novelist Tobias Smollett was born in 1721. At the points where the main road enters and leaves Renton, signs announce the village as Smollett's birthplace. His monument (see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/927380 for details) stands beside Renton Primary School.

An artist's depiction of the early Renton area shows the monument standing alone in a field, near a road that leads to Dumbarton. This illustration is reproduced on page 65 of Dr I.M.M.MacPhail's "Short History of Dumbartonshire" (the artist's name, if known, is not given). The village of Renton itself, which grew up as a settlement around the Dalquhurn bleach fields (see the link in the first paragraph), had only been been founded and named as recently as 1762, and was still in its infancy; it is therefore not surprising that the landscape depicted in the illustration features very few buildings, and consists mainly of open countryside. In the distance, it includes Dumbarton Rock, and the three huge cones of Dumbarton Glassworks (see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/930603 for details).

[Incidentally, for reasons that are explained at the link just cited, the depiction of three cones, all in use, at the distant glassworks allows the illustration to be dated to 1792 or later, instead of the 1775 that appears in the caption to the illustration in the book. For a detailed history of Renton's beginnings, see http://www.valeofleven.org.uk/renton.html (at the Vale of Leven website).]

Also visible in the illustration, beside the River Leven, is a three-storey building, with three windows on each floor of its near (northern) side, and with a single-storey addition on the side furthest from the river (the western side); a low wall can be seen around these buildings.

This can only be Dalquhurn House, which was described in the late nineteenth century by historian Donald MacLeod as a "three storey, gaunt, prosaic building, of a severely plain style of architecture. Its northern front showed unadorned walls, pierced with three oblong windows in each flat. It had a one-storey wing at its west end, the whole being surrounded by a low wall."

The building was demolished long ago. See http://www.wosas.net/wosas_site.php?id=21371 (at WoSAS) for some brief notes on the site as it was in 1997. In 2006 and 2007, the site was excavated and examined in detail, in preparation for the housing development; see http://www.wosas.net/news/dalquhurn.html for a summary of the investigation's results.

As noted there, the site of Dalquhurn House will not be covered by any of the buildings of the new housing development, and its location is to be marked in some way when construction is complete.

[As for the ownership of Dalquhurn up to the time of Tobias Smollett, the details are supplied by Joseph Irving's "The Book of Dumbartonshire" ("Vol 2 – Parishes", 1879), where it is stated that the lands of Dalquhurn were "conveyed in the fourteenth century by Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, to his seneschal, Walter Spreull. Dalquhurn continued in the hands of his descendants till 1620, when it was sold by James Spreull of Cowden to his son-in-law, John Dennistoun. His grandson sold Dalquhurn, in 1669, to Thomas Fleming, and the two Cordales to John Sempill of Fulwood. Dalquhurn was acquired by James Smollett of Bonhill from Charles Fleming (son of the last mentioned Thomas), in 1692, and was settled in liferent upon his third son Archibald Smollett, whose son, Tobias, the eminent novelist, was born here in 1721". The work goes on to mention that, in 1762, in order to accommodate the increasing number of workmen being drawn to the Cordale and Dalquhurn bleach fields, "Mrs Smollett of Bonhill founded a village on which, in honour of her daughter-in-law, she bestowed the name of Renton"; this daughter-in-law was Cecilia Renton, who was the daughter of John Renton of Blackadder (NT8452), also known as John Renton of Lamerton, and of Lady Susan Montgomerie (daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, the ninth Earl of Eglinton, and Susanna Kennedy).]