Glasgow Gallivanting: June 2019

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Monzie Castle

Despite a wet forecast earlier in the week, the first day of June, a Saturday, turned out to be a good one. We headed for Perthshire to two castles with lovely gardens. One is above, and the other – well, wait for the full post to follow soon!

Lambhill Stables

The second of June was less good so we settled for one of our local canal walks, eastwards this time to Lambhill Stables and Possil Loch. The Stables were built around 1830 when horses pulling barges were the main means of moving goods along the canal. Today they have been restored as a community facility with a café, heritage displays, and a garden. The Stables are closed on Sundays, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see. We enjoyed a stroll round the Community Garden which has some interesting sculptures.

Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden
Lambhill Community Garden

Possil Loch is a nature reserve which we walked round, but it’s very marshy and you don’t get close to the loch itself. The best view is actually from Lambhill’s garden. On previous visits, we had to peer through the hedge. This time, there was an official gap with an information board explaining the same view in Roman times. The route of the Antonine Wall, the Empire’s northernmost outpost, is very close.

Possil Loch
Antonine Wall info board

On another, solo, walk I went to find the new statue of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh which was unveiled last year. Well not find exactly, as I knew exactly where it was and had walked past it before but without time to stop. For those who know the Falkirk Kelpies, Andy Scott sculpted both them and this statue. It’s in a part of Glasgow called Finnieston which, as far as I know, has no specific connection to CRM, nor does the new housing development it fronts come anywhere near him for architectural flair. But for whatever reason it’s there, I like it – although I do wonder why his wife, Margaret MacDonald, could not be included. As Mackintosh said, she had genius whereas he had only talent. Yeah, I know I said that last week too but it can’t be repeated often enough in my opinion.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Andy Scott
Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Andy Scott
Charles Rennie Mackintosh by Andy Scott

On the way home through Kelvingrove Park I stopped at Lord Kelvin’s statue, one I know well – but not with a traffic cone on his head! If you have been following me for a while, you might remember my Gallus Glasgow A-Z Challenge a few years ago. ‘W’ featured the permanently be-coned statue of the Duke of Wellington. ‘K’ was for Kelvin – the river and all things named after it, including physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. It seems the cones are spreading!

Lord Kelvin joins the Traffic Cone Set

We have a new public art trail in Glasgow at the moment – in fact it’s nationwide, covering Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness as well. Oor Wullie is an iconic comic strip figure who has appeared in the Sunday Post since 1937 with his spiky hair, dungarees, and an upturned bucket, often used as a seat. Now 200 artists have given him a makeover in Oor Wullie’s Big Bucket Trail. In September, all the statues will be auctioned in aid of local children’s hospital charities.

So far, I have bagged quite a few Wullies and will no doubt find more before they disappear from our streets at the end of August. In fact, I spotted my first one before the trail even began. Late one night, we were waiting for a taxi outside Central Station and saw him being delivered. I met him again a few days later.

Wullie arriving outside Central station
Bring Back Your Empties, Wullie

The Wullie in the collage below could almost serve as Scottish Word of the Month, but I’ve already written that bit! Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye (what’s meant for you won’t pass you by) is by Natasha Zelen Forrest.

And what was I saying before about the Duke of Wellington and his cone? Triple whammy below! Wellington, his horse Copenhagen, and Wullie all have cones.

All the cones
Oor Wee Yin’s Banter

In addition, there are over 300 Wee Wullies painted by local schoolchildren. I found these cheeky chappies in the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens.

Wee Wullies in Kibble Palace
Wee Wullies in Kibble Palace

I’ll leave Wullie there for the moment, but he will no doubt appear in future months’ Gallivanting posts as I collect more. A more sombre piece of street sculpture appeared temporarily in St Enoch’s Square. Rubble Theatre by Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbounis recreated a scene from war-torn Syria where he lived as a child, and was part of Refugee Festival Scotland. Halbounis hoped to make people think about the issues around forced migration. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in conditions like this – I’m grateful I don’t have to.

Rubble Theatre by Manaf Halbouni
Rubble Theatre by Manaf Halbouni

Also part of Refugee Festival Scotland was the Refuweegee exhibition at Kelvingrove, a section of which is shown below. Refuweegee is a community charity which makes up welcome packs, including letters from the locals, for forcibly displaced people arriving in Glasgow. The name is a combination of refugee and Weegie, a shortened form of Glaswegian. I’m glad to know that my city is (mostly) welcoming to refugees.

Refuweegee
Refuweegee

Refuweegee could also be a Scottish Word of the Month, but here’s the one I prepared earlier. I don’t think I’ve ever discussed the meaning of Glasgow before. It’s thought to derive from the Gaelic Glaschu which, roughly, means green place – and that still describes it. We are the UK’s second greenest city with 32% green space, only beaten by (gulp) Edinburgh with 49%. The scenes below are both about 10 minute’s walk from my house in the west end of the city, the Botanic Gardens and the Forth and Clyde Canal respectively.

Botanic Gardens
Forth and Clyde Canal

Finally on Glasgow, a word about pronunciation which visitors often get wrong. The ow in Glasgow rhymes with “oh” and not with the ow sound as in “ouch”. In Glaswegian it often comes out Glesga. So now you know!

Natalie and Anabel
Anabel guiding

And finally, finally – an unexpected meeting. The women’s history walk season is well under way, and on Saturday I was one of the guides on the Women’s Library Merchant City Walk. As you can see it was wet! We had the full gamut of weather from sunshine to thunderstorms, but that’s Glasgow for you.

It was a lovely surprise when one of the attendees turned out to be Natalie, pictured with me above, of Wednesday’s Child. Natalie is a Glaswegian but now lives in Manchester, so although we’ve chatted online we’ve never met in person before – next time, we’ll have to make it a proper scheduled meet-up when we can chat properly.

So who can believe we are now half way through the year? Here’s to July – may it bring you all you wish for including, if you live in the UK, summer. She has tantalised us with brief glimpses but doesn’t seem to want to stay.

Scotland, UK , , , , ,

66 Comments »

  2. Hi Annabel! I like to ride my bike on the canal – I pass the Lambhill Stables and I have tried to walk the nature area….very, very marshy. I haven’t actually gone into the garden at Lambhill but now I have a reason to! That is once I am back on my bike, I’m recovering from ligament surgery and it’s a bit of a slog. Coffee? My treat this time!

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  3. That rubble sculpture looks so thought provoking. I wonder if it’ll be there this weekend? I’m thinking of popping over to Glasgow. I actually forgot I should be on the hunt for Oor Wullies while I’m there too – I’ve been spotting them all over Edinburgh, and even stumbled across the one at North Berwick the other week. 😀

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  4. Love the funky sculpture and that cone on the head of one of the statues is kind of funny, I have to admit. And then there were more. 🙂 The Wullie walk and colorful statues are another fun addition to the Glasgow scenery and shows a sense of humor. Too bad it’s only a temporary appearance.

    Have a wonderful summer, with plenty of blue skies, Anabel! I can’t believe the year has half passed already either! I’m slowly catching up on blog reading after a few weeks without time and internet…

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  5. Love the Wullie statues, not heard of them before. Glasgow is looking better and better but we’ve never made it there unfortunately. perhaps that means we need another trip up North next year?

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  6. I love the little robot guy in the garden! I remember Wellington and his cone well, but I have to wonder what happened when the cone thing first started. Did someone keep removing the cone, and someone else kept replacing it, or did they just let it stay from the start? Is someone actually buying the cones, or just taking them off the road? They look too clean to have been used!

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    • The council kept removing it to start with, but it kept reappearing. Now I think it has given up. Sometimes there are embellishments, hats, scarfs etc. When the Olympic gold post boxes came out he had a gold cone. That wasn’t lifted from the road! I have seen videos of people climbing up and it looks highly dangerous to me.

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  7. The Oor Wullie’s look like fun! I wonder if there is a prize for spotting them all. 😉 I first remember reading him (and The Broons) in my Gran’s Sunday Post – I would eagerly pick up the paper and turn to the centre pages when we went to visit her on a Sunday.
    I’m often trying to explain how to pronounce Glasgow correctly, but even when I say it in my own Scottish accent, some folks still struggle to get it right!

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    • I don’t know if there’s a prize – you get little rewards when you enter some of them in the app. I loved Oor Wullie and the Broons too. I’ve had one confession to mispronunciation in the comments, but I bet there are more not owning up!

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  9. You’ve had a very busy and fun-filled month, Anabel. So cool that you were able to meet Natalie from Wednesday’s Child. I LOVE blogger meet-ups – both planned and spontaneous.
    I also enjoyed the Wullie figures and look forward to seeing more in future posts.

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  12. Excellent post, but I have to say that I am not a fan of the traffic cones. Wellington – ok – we came to live with that but I don’t find the rest amusing at all. A friend recently toured Dundee and took photographs of all the Wullie statues she found around there. I didn’t know about the Glasgow ones at all. Australians also have a bit of difficulty with Loch and have a habit of adding an R to words that end in W i.e.l Law =Lawr. Nice to have an unexpected meeting. I had one such meeting a few days ago, where we chatted about my boys and my grandson and various things – if only I could remember who he was :o)

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    • Ah, thank you for that – ever since Bob commented I’ve been trying to remember what the phrase that annoys me so much with an intrusive “r” is – law and order! Or Laura Norder, whoever she is 😉. We had some warm weather, but nothing like the European heatwave.

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  15. Hi Anabel, Your note on the wet forecast reminds why the area is a beautiful green colour. I like how they restore the stables. Very interesting sculptures. The phrase “she had genius whereas he had only talent” is noteworthy. The other phrase that resonates and stands the test of time “what’s meant for you won’t pass you by”. Wullie is new to me although likely not the last time I will see him. Thanks for sharing all:)

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  16. A good varied collection. Never knew all those sculptures existed at the stables. Only drawback of Possil Loch is that you can’t see the loch or any wildlife on it- but great for nature that likes real privacy. Hope the cones do not spread anywhere else- one statue is enough. Talking about mispronunciation I’ve lost count of the number of celebrity folk, even Scots but English based who pronounce Loch as Lock Lomond, Lock Ness etc. There was even a recent programme on TV called The Loch but the entire cast pronounced it as The Lock. You would not think it would be hard but I’ve recently realised most English folk are completely incapable of saying loch after I heard a few Welsh folk on TV pronouncing it properly with no hesitation at all as they use the same strong ‘ch’ sounds in their words. Drawer is another one in English as in ‘Let’s all drawer a picture of an apple.

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  18. It was lovely to meet you too! And let’s definitely do so again!

    I’ve yet to see the CRM statue, but I agree that it would be nice to see Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh commemorated as equally as her husband. The May Queen is one of my favourite pieces of art.

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  19. Snap, I had a thought a while back about doing a post about our time finding big Wullies, one day! What an excellent opportunity to be a guide on the Women’s Library Merchant City Walk, I would follow you 🙂

    Our NZ good friends are having a wonderful time on their road trip up in the Northern reaches of Scotland, and they also enjoyed Glasglow very much.

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  20. What fun the Wullies are. I look forward to seeing more as you find them. And I just love the word and the concept of “Refuweegee”. Well done, Glasgow.

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  22. I knew this was going to be a great post because you started with a castle 🙂

    Statues with cones (bwahahaha!!!), Wullies, and caring for refugees … you’ve had a great June (in spite of the weather)!

    Good to know I was pronouncing Glasgow correctly. Perhaps it helps that one of my best friends is from Glasgow. I’ll take every cheat I can …. except to be more precise, she pronounces it Glahs-go. Could it be she’s been in Canada too long? Please say yes. It’ll give me something to tease her about 😉

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  23. A pretty good digest. I agree entirely about the CRM statue and how Margaret Macdonald should have been included. I will need to have a trip to Lambhill too as it looks interesting.

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  24. I grew up in Central Africa, in the 1940s/50s, and my Uncle, living in Dumfries, mailed The Scotsman out to my Dad – took months to reach us, and I grew up with Oor Wullie. I loved him at the time, and still enjoy his antics. What lovely gardens you shared with us.

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      • Yes, I did. Loved them! I had no access to shops, and certainly not to comics, so the comic strips in Dad’s newspaper were like manna from heaven. Over 40 years later, my Mum spotted a brand new Oor Wullie Annual in a second hand bookshop in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa, which is 90% Afrikaans speaking, in the geographical middle of SA, how weird was that? she bought it pronto, and I still own it.

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  26. What a busy month! It must be fun chasing the Wullies, and I love that Refuge Theater, which brings attention to what it’s like to live in a war zone. How nice that you ran into your friend Natalie. Thank you for the heads-up on the proper pronunciation of Glasgow. I think I’ve always been pronouncing it incorrectly! I hope I can remember now. 🙂

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  29. Just trying to catch up with you after my 10-day holiday and several days of sorting through nearly 700 photos I took. I don’t particularly care for the Wullies – sorry but I find them quite ugly – however no doubt many people will have fun trying to find them all. The statues with the cones on made me smile though, especially Wellington and his horse 🙂

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    • I saw you had a new holiday post up. I’m a bit behind too, so I’ll get there eventually! Not everyone likes the Wullies – some people find them a bit scary. I’ve heard them compared to ventriloquists’ dummies and Dr Who’s angels in that context.

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