There has been much talk in recent times of Glasgow's HMP Barlinnie having reached and breached its sell by date with plans put forward to replace the Victorian facility.
Developers have submitted proposals for inmates to be moved to a new "super jail" on the site of the former Provan Gas Works with the "not fit for purpose" building at Riddrie sold off and ditched for good.
Whether or not the old Barlinnie would be demolished and the site redeveloped remains unclear, but Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney is among those calling for the building to be turned into a prison museum after it's decommissioned.
READ MORE: Plans for 'modern' HMP Glasgow to replace Barlinnie prison include 'community cafe'
Invariably nicknamed the 'Big Hoose' and 'Bar-L' by many locals, HMP Barlinnie is one of the oldest jails in Scotland that's still in operation.
Designed by Scots prisons architect Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson, Barlinnie opened in 1882 on a large plot of land in the then rural Riddrie district on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Contrary to how the prison has been perceived in modern times, Barlinnie was hailed at the time of its establishment as having revolutionised the rehabilitation for prisoners in Scotland.
But while many will know bits and pieces about the history of the jail, there are few aware of the ancient back story behind its name.
Why, for example, was the prison not named after the Riddrie area and where did the Barlinnie name originate? We take a closer look.
In March 1880, it was announced that a new prison for Glasgow would "supersede the old and proverbially-familiar 'Duke Street'" with the facility to be built on 32 acres of land called Barlinnie, which adjoined the village of Riddrie around 200 yards south of the Cumbernauld Road. The land was acquired by the Scottish Prison Department from landowner Mr Wilson of Campbellfield.
There had been a stretch of land dubbed Barlinnie in the area for at least 700 years, with the name coined at a time when Gaelic was the language of the upper classes in what is now the Greater Glasgow area.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of Barlinnie occurs in 1562, with the rural area named as Blairlenny.
The name is a composite of the Gaelic 'blàr', meaning field or level land for rough grazing, with the second part of the word derived from 'làanach' (swampy). Other place names starting with 'Bar' and 'Blair' around Glasgow share a similar back story.
By the 19th century, the Barlinnie name survived with contemporary maps showing it as a farm steading situated around a mile west of Gartcraig - the original 'Big Hoose'.
So, there you have it; the origins of Barlinnie. Funnily enough, we're sure the inmates at Barlinnie have complained more than once down the years about the 'rough grazing' on offer from the prison kitchen - little did they know how true to tradition it really was.
