The Gorbals area of Glasgow was one of the central areas of  Glasgow for Kilkie and other Irish immigrants. As with most such areas it had cheap housing and nearby occupations.

The first Kilkie residence in the Gorbals was South Wellington Street (renamed Lawmoor Street in 1910). Martin and Annie Waters lived in number 332  there in 1898 when their daughter Mary married James Kilkie from Lismacarol. James and his wife and many of their children lived in adjacent “closes” until the mid 1920s when they began to spread out to Govan and other areas.

The areas was part of the Glasgow slums that were “redeveloped” in the 1960s and residents were decanted to the new “schemes” in Pollok, Drumchapel, Easterhouse and Castlemilk. The destination of the Kilkies from the Gorbals was Castlemilk, a new estate in the south of Glasgow, with a few moving to Govan.