A common feature in the UK and Europe, there’s even a UK Roundabout Appreciation Society, documenting their layout and artistic design touches. This complex suffered a further intervention between November 2009 and February 2010 with the construction of a new roundabout where the Cowie Road meets the A91 on the eastern fringes of the housing development, adjacent to a bus depot. Similar to other New Towns, the road network within th… The role of roundabouts is very simple: they keep traffic flowing at junctions in a way that traffic lights and other types of junction could not. By Conor Matchett Tuesday, 30th April 2019, 12:28 pm ROUNDABOUTS in East Kilbride could be getting a facelift thanks to a new sponsorship programme. You’ll know you’re approaching a roundabout because you’ll see a red-trimmed triangular sign with white centre and three circular black arrows. You should also consider whether the roundabout has two or more lanes on approach, like the Edinburgh city bypass, or the many you encounter on travelling into major cities like Manchester and Liverpool. solution. A little outside of Glasgow (to consider if you’re commuting into town) on a … In a town that is, in a sense, defined by its roundabouts the Torrance Roundabout is not even the most interesting roundabout in East Kilbride. The first of these is the Torrance Roundabout in East Kilbride. Some roundabout entrances and exits feature pedestrian crossings, where you will be required to give way for pedestrians. In a town that is, in a sense, defined by its roundabouts the Torrance Roundabout is not even the most interesting roundabout in East Kilbride. Image Billy Millin/Shutterstock.com We put together a five-minute guide to the place us Scots affectionately call ‘Roundabout City’ to help you get the most out of your visit! The roundabout as a formal junction type was introduced by Transport Research Laboratory engineers, followed soon by legislation to standardise the use of roundabouts, that is, the ‘offside priority rule’, which was passed in 1966. John has been a roundabout enthusiast for more than a decade and has a collection of more than 63 photos. But the most important factor in our roundabout guide is what you should expect as a driver – so here’s everything you need to know about roundabouts. I use the word ‘thing’ here because it is difficult to summarise the content of the NMRS without recourse to such a vague term. As well as these checks, pay heed to any other lanes at your roundabout entrance, and check your rear-view mirror for traffic around you. Reply. I visited the thoroughly modern EK roundabout on foot to experience its featurelessness, but drove round the Greenyards roundabout a few days later, conscious that I was passing over a place that had been significant for thousands of years. Millhouse Glen was the location of a Conventicle held on Pulpit Hill, in 1675, by the Rev John Blackadder. Questions: With multiple lanes approach, what lanes to take before entering roundabouts? South Lanarkshire Council admitted this week … Answer 1 of 17: I was driving to St Andrews yesterday from Edinburgh. There are 352 houses for sale in East Kilbride, so book your viewing today. This road has taken over the designation A726. This fascinating road engineering history takes us little closer to finding out why ‘roundabout’ is a class of monument within the NMRS. Visiting East Kilbride? Roundabouts should be viewed within the context of the utopian ideals that lay behind the development of Scotland’s post-war New Towns: modern, clean and efficient creations that facilitated the smooth flow of traffic. My recent experiences at Torrance and Greenyards were in stark contrast. As with many roundabouts in the East Kilbride area traffic lights are required for pedestrians. A Paramics movie of this roundabout in operation will be shown at the presentation. And while you’re not going to cut across the green spaces of large primary-route roundabouts, you can drive over the ‘hump’ at the centre of the mini-roundabout if there are vehicles parked in a location that prevents you from manoeuvring around it. Background information on the Torrance and Muirhead Roundabouts came from the North and South Lanarkshire Council webpages, while the ethos behind the establishment of East Kilbride can be explored further at this webpage. Pedestrian crossing at this roundabout is extremely dangerous. The approach to mini roundabouts, meanwhile, features a blue-backed circular sign with three white arrows. There are even some sights to see amid the to-and-fro of roundabout traffic, from the metal-crafted geese of Dunbartonshire’s Stoneymollan roundabout, to the 14th-century Celtic cross nestled in the town centre roundabout of Campbeltown. I had a strong sensation that this was somewhere where one should not go, and once there, it can be difficult to get off again safely. "East Kilbrides "landmark", oh dear." Signal – Make sure other road users can see what your intended direction is. I stumbled upon the NMRS category ‘roundabout’ when exploring the urban prehistory of East Kilbride (note to self: there is not much urban prehistory in EK, but there are many, many roundabouts). I could not resist exploring a little further. East Kilbride is connected to Glasgow city centre by road and rail. Roundabouts form an important bridge between one main highway and other minor roads, and if used properly, allow traffic to flow in a number of directions in an orderly fashion. Things to Do in East Kilbride, Scotland: See Tripadvisor's 1,849 traveler reviews and photos of East Kilbride tourist attractions. Resurfacing work is then set to get underway on the A725 between the Whirlies Roundabout and Crossbasket in East Kilbride starting on the evening of … Murray Roundabout, East Kilbride is 737 meters away, 10 min walk. But Cwmbran has the greatest density of roundabouts with one every 1.46km. The two NMRS roundabouts are, perhaps not surprisingly, in two of Scotland’s new towns. #8 Best Value of 11 places to stay in East Kilbride “ South Craighall is just the perfect little B&B. Recently, the addition of the Glasgow Southern Orbital road links the west of the town directly with Newton Mearns and the M77. Their scale is different, but the same road rules apply for mini roundabouts; give way to the right, and look both ways to check for traffic. East Kilbride was the first "new town" in Scotland, with construction starting a few miles south of Glasgow shortly after World War 2. 1996 Excavation of a promontory fort and palisaded homestead at Lower Greenyards, Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, 1982-1985 in PSAS 126, 199-269. To the north and south of this For instance, in one case a roundabout is included almost incidentally because it contains a sculpture of two beavers at the entrance to Beaverbank Business Park in Edinburgh (NMRS number NT27NE 1682). 15. To investigate this further, I searched the NMRS using the keyword ‘roundabout’ to see what kinds of things had been included. ( Log Out /  This traffic island sits on the south side of the town, on the junction between the A726 Strathaven Road, Greenhills Road and Torrance Wynd. The Dollan Baths complex opened in 1968. This location is just to the north of the two aforementioned early Neolithic enclosures. In fact, there are well over 60 roundabouts in EK, part of the vision of the town’s New Town Development Corporation which existed between 1947 and 1996. There are more than 10,000 roundabouts in the UK, with towns such as Redditch in England and East Kilbride in Scotland well known for featuring dozens of them. The village and parish of East Kilbride were strong centres of Covenanting belief during the period 1638-1688. From there, you’ll want to position yourself in the correct lane, while being mindful of any traffic lights. Sources: For more information on the Bannockburn cursus excavations in the 1980s, see Rideout, J.S. Got Five Minutes? On some particularly busy roundabouts, traffic lights will be installed at each entrance to allow a steadier flow of traffic. Details Shortlist Watch Video Available. ( Log Out /  It does have a lot of roundabouts – I sometimes feel a bit sick driving round them. These monuments were excavated by the Central Excavation Unit in 1984-85 ahead of the construction of a housing development and the ‘Stirling Eastern Distributor Road’ (the A91). "East Kilbride to Mavor & Coulson's Siding (Caledonian) 24-Jan-1966 " There was a siding into the former Radio Times factory in Hairmyres could it be that? Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The term roundabout exists within a hierarchy of terms, which widen out to Road Transport Site and then more widely still, simply Transport. These Bus lines stop near Birniehill Roundabout, East Kilbride: 201, 21, 395, 6. Leisure facilities have not been overlooked. (PSAS back issues can be accessed free online via the Society’s webpage.) ( Log Out /  Find the travel option that best suits you. I went to this location in November of that year specifically to visit the site of a Neolithic monument that had once stood in this place. Be alert, but assertive; if there’s a safe opportunity to enter the roundabout, then set off, provided you’re not going to cause any other drivers to slow down, stop, or veer away to avoid you. See 1 tip from 60 visitors to Whirlies Roundabout. This cluster of features is, in a sense, unremarkable, and fits a pattern of later prehistoric settlement in the vicinity in the form of Iron Age enclosures found during the 1984 campaign of developer-funded fieldwork to the north. The other roundabout named in the NMRS is in one of Scotland’s other New Towns, Cumbernauld. If you’ve been driving in Europe you may have done your best to avoid the anarchy of the Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris, a cobblestone cavalcade seemingly designed to strike fear into the would-be road user. Dick. Look – It’s so important to check right at a roundabout approach, to gauge the amount of traffic coming across your path. The presence of this roundabout in the NMRS is inexplicable (it has NMRS number NS65SW 181, grid reference NS 64625 52026). Scran is a UK charity with a learning image service: 500,000 images, clip art, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media; thousands of learning packs; and web tools to create, design, assemble and distribute. At a slightly more specific level, the kinds of things you can expect to find while browsing in the NMRS includes archaeological sites, historic buildings, material culture, shipwrecks, cropmark sites, events (such as watching briefs or surveys), natural features, public art and sculptures, and perhaps surprisingly, some very modern phenomena such as tower blocks and – much to my amazement – roundabouts. Swindon is bonkers about roundabouts but it’s only third in the league of UK towns with the most roundabouts, zeitghost, Milton Keynes has the most with 130 followed by East Kilbride, Swindon, Basingstoke and Cwmbran. Another route being the A749 which runs north into Rutherglen. They are also much cheaper than traffic lights to install and this is particularly so for mini roundabouts. Or, you might be able to access the roundabout freely, but there could be traffic lights en route to leaving the roundabout again. Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:51 pm One example of this is the Greenyards Roundabout, on the edge of Bannockburn, Stirling, which was constructed in 2010. On the approach to roundabouts on ‘primary routes’ (A and B roads) you’ll often see a green sign with white illustration, depicting the upcoming roundabout and the main destinations corresponding to each roundabout exit road. Mirror – Use them to check for any traffic behind you, and the speed at which any vehicles are approaching from behind you. Three very nice aerial photographs of the roundabout and adjacent tower blocks are included in CANMORE for public access and show more of an intersection than a roundabout, essentially a means to connect a series of local roads with the main A8011 which runs below. Do they know how to negotiate the many many roundabouts in EK? The ways that our experiences of the past are mediated can entail many different methods: by foot, by car, by bike, bus or train. And so it is intriguing to think about roundabouts which sit in locations that were important in the past. Change ). In fact, there are well over 60 roundabouts in EK, part of the vision of the town’s New Town Development Corporation which existed between 1947 and 1996. The band Texas even had a song called ‘Polo Mint City’ on their 1997 album ‘White On Blonde’ 3 East Kilbride is twinned with the Danish town Ballerup near wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. The extract from the 1940s Highway Code, and the Concrete Island cover, are available widely online, while the 1978 Highway Code cover is a free image sourced from the difitalimaj website. Now destroyed, or only with ephemeral vestiges surviving under tarmac, houses and gardens, nothing can be seen of the ghostly traces of this prehistoric ceremonial complex. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The Whitemoss roundabout photo was sourced from the East Kilbride News website. East Kilbride is a good place for cycling with many of the busy roundabouts having underpasses for pedestrians and cyclists. Three main roads connect East Kilbride with surrounding suburbs and the city, one being the A727 (formerly A726) leading west to Busby and on to Clarkston Toll. The best first car in 2021? Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Do they know how to negotiate the many many roundabouts in EK? The inclusion of Muirhead Roundabout (NS77NE 181) is equally puzzling. We have reviews of the best places to see in East Kilbride. And as ever, the past has become entangled in the present because even today we are still building monuments. Position – Get into the correct lane based on which direction you wish to continue from the roundabout. Of course, all traffic will approach to your right. This was a complex of early Neolithic postholes and pits, remnants of a timber cursus monument with adjacent u-shaped pit-defined enclosure (NMRS numbers NS89SW 24 and 22 respectively). Standing on a concrete island is an anti-social activity and leaves you vulnerable and exposed. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. At peak times there is barely a break in the traffic. And indeed being in a roundabout is a strange sensation, as I found out when visiting the middle of the Torrance Roundabout. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. People in passing cars stared at me disapprovingly. Baillie Drive, Calderwood, East Kilbride, G74 3JZ. On most drives in the UK, you're likely to encounter a roundabout. The term roundabout is contained within the NMRS Thesaurus of Monument Types, and defined concisely as: ‘A circular construction at the intersection of two or more roads to aid the passage of vehicles from one road to another.’ This definition has a certain poetic quality to it. There are so many driving schools in East Kilbride Glasgow, so how do you choose?After all you are new to driving and probably only 16 years old so how do you tell who is good and who is not? These help you prepare for reaching the roundabout, where you may then encounter a white, inverted triangular sign with a red band around it, meaning you should stop and give way to traffic on the right-hand side. Let alone teach you? The Greenyards Roundabout excavations have not yet been fully published; see Mitchell and Hastie’s brief note in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 11, page 170 (you can read this in CANMORE). I was drawing up to one of the many roundabouts in East Kilbride today (aka Polo Mint City) after dropping my mum at her work when I realised that I h Mexican stand-offs at roundabouts - … Imagine yourself approaching any roundabout at ‘six o’ clock’, positioned at the base of any roundabout sign. The National Monuments Record of Scotland (NMRS) is a wonderful thing, accessed remotely via the CANMORE portal, offering a window onto tens of thousands of mostly old things around Scotland. I visited this roundabout and found it to be a featureless traffic island without even a hint of landscaping within the centre, nothing more than a flat-topped low monoblock round mound with road signs and a single advertisement perched on top. After all you are new to driving and likely only 16 years old so how do you tell who is a fantastic driving instructor and who is not? ( Log Out /  In fact, there are well over 60 roundabouts in EK, part of the vision of the town’s New Town Development … In a town that is, in a sense, defined by its roundabouts the Torrance Roundabout is not even the most interesting roundabout in East Kilbride. There are so many roundabouts in the town that it was nicknamed "Polo Mint City" after the round white sweet with a hole in it.