Glasgow Gallivanting: November 2019

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Glasgow from Cathkin Braes. The Gothic tower, centre right, is the main building of the University of Glasgow. The mountain in the background is Ben Lomond.

I can hardly believe we are now hurtling towards Christmas! November turned out much busier than expected, and December is much the same, hence the lateness of this post.

Out and about

The introductory image is taken from Cathkin Braes on the southern edge of Glasgow, and shows how close we are to the Highlands. This was Remembrance Sunday, and our walk that day took us through the village of Carmunnock at the foot of the Braes. We admired the War Memorial with its hand-crafted poppies from the service earlier in the day.

Carmunnock War Memorial
Memorial poppies

We managed to get a few more walks in November, despite the wintry weather. The late afternoon light on the Carron Valley Reservoir provided some beautiful reflections.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust Reserve at Loch Ardinning has featured before, so just merits a couple of shots this time.

Dumgoyne from Loch Ardinning
Dumgoyne from Muirhouse Muir

I’ve featured many Scottish castles in beautiful locations – Newark Castle is rather different: it stands next to a shipyard. From here, we followed the Port Glasgow Heritage Walk, which might sound unlikely to those who know the area, but which was interesting enough to merit its own post at some (much) later date.

We gallivanted up to Dundee! I had a day on my own while John was at a meeting, then we stayed on for a couple of nights. Again, a full post will follow, but here’s a couple of tasters. I climbed Dundee Law where, as you can see, the weather was dreich. Outside the McManus Art Gallery, Oor Wullie was keeping warm in his Christmas jumper / sweater – but I bet he got wet!

Dundee Law selfie
Christmas Oor Wullie

Happy talk

The guided walk season ended in October, and what was supposed to be my last talk of the year, What about the women?, took place in Maryhill in November, billed as follows:

When Maryhill Burgh Halls opened in 1878, stained glass artist Stephen Adam was commissioned to produce twenty windows representing local trades of which eighteen showed men and only two showed women. Adam was representing what he saw at the time, but what about the women of Maryhill? What are their stories? This talk seeks to redress the balance of history by looking at how we commemorate women in Glasgow generally before telling some historic tales about Maryhill’s women – from factory worker to heiress, and everything in between.

Well – I thought that was going to be my last talk, until I was invited to do another one in December! And, gulp, it’s tonight! More about that next time.

Ghost Signs

We went to a really interesting talk at Glasgow City Heritage Trust on their current project to document as many of the city’s ghost signs as possible. What is a ghost sign? Well, my definition would be a faded old sign from times gone by, which has never been completely obliterated or which reappears when newer signs are removed. I was surprised to find how many Glasgow examples I had in my files.

Miller’s, Bridgeton
Hunter Street
Virginia Street
Buccleuch Lane
Buccleuch Lane
Houldsworth Street
Hyndland Road
Kelvingrove Café, Argyle Street
Red Hackle, Otago Street
Partick

This project’s remit is wider than that, and includes signs which are integral to the building. Some examples from my collection include the former Sorn Dairy, now a block of flats in Maryhill, with its name picked out in brickwork on the front (though still quite ghostly).

Sorn Dairy, Sanda Street
Sorn Dairy, Sanda Street

The former Tobacco Warehouse and the Children’s Hospital Dispensary (now part of the Art School) have solidly carved signs which I would probably not count as ghost signs at all, but they feature in the project because they advertise businesses or institutions which are no longer there.

Former tobacco warehouse, James Watt Street
Children’s Hospital Dispensary, West Graham Street

I definitely wouldn’t count the Jacobite Corsetry sign which could easily be removed, and remains by choice of the current owners. Not ghostly at all in my book! But definition disagreements apart, it was a fascinating talk and I now have something else to look out for on my walks around Glasgow.

Jacobite Corsetry, Virginia Street

The last bit

So many other things! Of course, there’s been a bit of political stuff going on – as if you hadn’t noticed. By Friday we should know the worst. In better news, we’ve had lots of family and friends stuff happening.

The main family news is the first baby of a new generation. Tommy was born in October, and Mum and I met him for the first time in November. He’s my cousin’s daughter’s son, which I think makes him my first cousin twice removed, but I’m prepared to be corrected. Here he is being held by his Great-Great Aunt (my mum) with his proud Great-Granny (my aunt) alongside.

As for friends, one of the most notable events was the visit to Glasgow of the lovely Becky of  The life of B. It was our second “real-life” meeting, the first being on her home turf of Winchester last year. She hadn’t been to Glasgow before, so I took her on a tour of the city centre.

Cathedral unicorn
Inside GoMA
Argyll Arcade

Left to right above, a unicorn in the Cathedral, the dome of the Gallery of Modern Art which started life as an 18th century mansion house, and the Argyll Arcade, one of Europe’s oldest covered shopping arcades (1827) and Scotland’s first ever indoor shopping mall. We got wet, because it was – guess what? – dreich.

That’s twice I’ve mentioned dreich in connection with the weather! We had Book Week Scotland in November, which this year included a vote for the most iconic Scots word, and dreich was the winner. Originally meaning enduring or slow, tedious, over time these definitions gave way to dreary, hard to bear and from there to dull, gloomy. Dreich has been one of my Scottish words of the month before, as have many of the rest of the top ten: glaikit, scunnered, shoogle, wheesht, fankle, outwith, braw, beastie and bumfle. Maybe I’ll feature some in later months – in the meantime, if any intrigue you, you can ask me about them in the comments.

Finally, I’m never one to turn down a chance to rootle around in someone else’s library. Three of us from the Women’s Library visited the Goethe Institut and Alliance Française which share a 19th century terraced house in the Park District of Glasgow. Library staff were very welcoming (and served lovely cake and biscuits / cookies) and we came away with several ideas for future collaborations.

Lion staircase
Alliance Française library
Goethe Institut library
Goethe Institut library
Goethe Institut library

So that’s it for my November roundup, and I’m not anticipating posting again until December’s Glasgow Gallivanting. I hope we will meet elsewhere in the blogosphere before then, but if we don’t I wish you all the very best for the festive season. See you in the New Year!

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65 Comments »

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  4. Re: dreich. In German, there is the word dreck, which means dirt, and dreckig, which means dirty. I wonder if there is any etymological relationship to dreich, or to the meaning shift of dreich? As in “dirty weather.” Interesting to speculate. Anabel, you sure were busy in November! Have a great Christmas and New Years.

    Jude

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  5. You had a very busy November! I love the part about the ghost signs; I’ve recently become fascinated with those, especially after our visit to Cincinnati, where I bought a book called “Fading Ads of Cincinnati.” I’ve been trying to collect photos of them and need more before I can do a post. They do bring back a certain feeling of nostalgia. I also love your series of reflections and the hand-crafted poppies. And I noticed you’ve been using the word dreich a lot lately; it must be very tedious to have gloomy weather so often! Happy holidays. 🙂

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    • I see ghost signs everywhere now! This month we went to an event at the same organisation about Glasgow’s coat of arms and I keep seeing more of them now too. As for dreich, well, our expectations are low so we are not usually disappointed and sometimes pleasantly surprised.

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  7. I love finding ghost signs, and that sounds like a really interesting project! I think one of my blogger friends is working on a book about the ghost signs of Toronto.
    Hope your talk went well! I’m currently in the US over Christmas, and it’s not dreich, but it is cold! -8 C this morning!

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  8. Hi Anabel – lovely photos and experiences … I love the one of your Ma and her sister … gosh they couldn’t be anything else could they? Brilliant to see little Tommy – welcome to your world little one. Brilliant words .. dreich – I’m so used to now – – I hear it everywhere, but bumfle … what a great word! You’ve done us proud with your visits … Newark Castle seems a little out of place …

    Have a good Christmas and New Year run in … and here’s to a happy 2020 – cheers Hilary

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  10. Such a busy bee you are! Could you tell from memory which month of 2019 was your mellowest one? Based on your gallivanting reports, I’d say none. 🙂 I love all those ghost signs. They really throw one back in time. I’m also a fan of your Scottish word of the month: dreich. I’ll be able to remember and pronounce that one – and find its newest meaning fitting.

    Happy holidays, Anabel and John!

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  11. There is something about a winter sun that does give the landscape a unique look! And I’ve long admired ghost signs, without ever knowing what their real name is…but it is a piece of history that’s fun to notice. Congrats on the newest addition to your family!

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  12. I love the term ghost signs; I regularly see these and hadn’t thought to try and name them.
    As always your walk photos are lovely and the new baby is awfy bonny.

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  13. It’s many years since I visited Glasgow and that was only for a couple of days on our way to the Trossachs and Loch Lomond (typical tourists but we enjoyed it immensely, my husband and I, except for the lone piper playing along the shores of the Loch who did seem a bit too touristy even for us)! So, your overview of your city was more than welcome, especially when accompanied by such great illustrations, thank you.
    A very happy Christmas to you and yours, and a special welcome to wee Tommy, and may things quieten down for all of us after tonight, although I fear not.

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  14. I’d say good luck on the talk, but looking at the time I suspect I’m too late! I need to come to one of these/time my next Glasgow visit to coincide with that.
    I ADORE ghost signs! They remind me of the opticians sign in The Great Gatsby.

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  15. Was such a fabulous day despite the weather, thank you again so very much. It seemed to be dreich my whole visit!

    and those photos of Loch Ardinning and Carron valley are stunning 🙂

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  17. That’s an unexpectedly colorful opening photo. You made me look up a word: remit. The UK meaning is not familiar in these parts. The reflection photos are really gorgeous!

    The talk about women sounds fascinating – I’m sure I would have enjoyed it very much. Hope tonight’s talk went well. Let us know.

    Your Mum and her sister look so much alike, don’t they?

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    • Thanks Eilene. The photo has been processed a bit to make it clearer, I think, as there was quite a lot of zoom used. I would have to ask my photography assistant 😉! My talk last night went well, thanks. Photos in the next gallivanting! Mum and her sister do look very alike in that photo. When I put it on Facebook someone asked if they were twins which pleased my mum as she is 7 years older! I’m not so aware of the strong resemblance in “real life”. Sometimes looking at a static photograph brings things out. I certainly think it’s their part of the family that I resemble most.

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  18. Hi Anabel, I appreciate an overview photo, since I may never have the opportunity to visit Glasgow. I am glad you mentioned “hand-crafted poppies” since I was not aware of this until I looked more closely at the photo. I don’t know whether other communities document ghost signs. I know I will be more aware of faded, older signs after your post, Anabel. I love the photo of your Mom, your Aunt and the new baby. Stunning photos and interesting photos. It is always a pleasure to read your posts, Anabel. I always learn something new in a fun way. I look forward to connecting in the New Year! 🙂

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  19. Another action packed and varied post. Like the ghost signs idea and always liked Port Glasgow. More in the three towns there than people think.

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  20. Despite the dreich weather, you do live in a fabulous place, with so much to see and do, Anabel. What a busy bee 🙂 🙂 Lovely light on the water when you did find sunshine. I shall look forward to that walk whenever it arrives. meantime, I hope tonight went well and have a very happy festive season. 🙂

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  22. I like the idea of ghost signs and will keep an eye out for them in the future. How lovely to have a new little person in the family. We have another newbie expected to arrive in the next month in our extended family too. Your photos of the reflections on the water are quite beautiful. Have a wonderful Christmas!

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  23. I am so impressed that you’ve been committed to more gallivanting while so many of us have been retreating into hibernating ways. I absolutely love ghost signs and had no idea that was even the term to describe them. Now I know what it is I yell about to my kids when we are driving or walking around a city.

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  25. What a busy bee you are! Always a good read. I love ghost signs and probably have a few myself, nice to have a name for them. Been dreich down here for far too long and it doesn’t seem like changing any time soon. Just have to make the most when the sun shines. Have a good Christmas, and congratulations on the new baby, always a joy 👶💕🎄

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    • Our forecast seems to be dreich for the foreseeable future too. The signs are so interesting when you look into them. The project also runs a guided walk but it books up really fast and we’ve never managed to get on. Hope you have a good Christmas too.

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  26. Ghost signs are wonderful, but I’ve never taken notice of them before. I mustr start collecting them!

    The weather’s been dreich all right, but we’ve just had a lovely still sunny day, so I can’t complain.

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  27. What a busy November you had and you got to visit a whole host of fascinating places. Not heard the term ghost signs before but love the idea and it describes the signwork so well. We always wonder what the history and story behind the almost forgotten sign is.

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  28. I love ghost signs! I’ve admired them, taken lots of pictures of them, but never had a name for them… until now. Also added to my vocabulary is dreich and rootle. Oh, and why the heck would they build a castle next to a ship yard? (Yes, I am kidding 🙃) Have a wonderful Christmas season!

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