Glasgow Gallivanting: August 2020

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River Ericht at Blairgowrie

August was a month of activity on three levels. From the top – we went on holiday! Admittedly, this was our Easter Holiday postponed, but it still felt good to be out of the city for a while. The view above was ours for a week – more to follow in due course.

Level two – at weekends, we continued to walk in areas on the edge of or just outside Glasgow. Sometimes, this meant pretty countryside as below.

Mealybrae
Mealybrae
Bar Hill
Bar Hill
Bar Hill
Bar Hill
Campsie Glen
Dumgoyne
Ben Lomond
Dumgoyach
Linn Park
Linn Park

At other times we went to places that are not maybe obvious ones to visit, such as Bishopbriggs just over the  Glasgow border in East Dunbartonshire. However, this town has some interesting historical sites we wanted to visit. Mavis Valley, on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal, existed as a mining village from 1851 to 1955. You can see the rows of houses on the information board below. Today trees have reclaimed the site, but if you look carefully you can still see the remains of a wall here and there.

Tragedy struck Mavis Valley in 1913 when six of the 22 men who died in the Cadder Pit disaster were residents. There’s a memorial to them outside Bishopbriggs Library. (There’s another memorial at Lambhill Stables which I’ve posted about before).

Cadder Pit Disaster Memorial
Cadder Pit Disaster Memorial

In between Mavis Valley and the library, we came across some quirky critters!

Bishopbriggs giraffe
Three little pigs
Dragon bench
Tree house
Tree house

We then walked out the other side of Bishopbriggs to Huntershill, home of 18th century radical Thomas Muir. Here we found a memorial cairn and the Martyr’s Gate commemorating Muir and four other men who were transported to Australia for sedition in 1793-4.

Huntershill memorial
Huntershill sign
Thomas Muir cairn
Martyr’s Gate
Martyr’s Gate
Martyr’s Gate

Muir’s family home, Huntershill House, is just across the road, and what a sorry state it is in! For a while, it was owned by the local council who sold it on a few years ago. It’s now on the Buildings at Risk Register – see what it should look like here.

Huntershill House
Huntershill House
Huntershill House

Finally, on weekdays we continued with our lockdown routes after John finished work. We don’t take as many photographs now, but I still have a large backlog of themes that piqued our interest. Today, I’ve collected together some of the many messages that people have sent out during the various stages of lockdown. This bench in Partickhill, for example, has a message which changes daily. On both occasions that we stopped to photograph it we met the woman who created it. She seemed delighted by our interest.

Partickhill bench
Partickhill bench

In deepest, darkest lockdown people were sending messages to loved ones they could not meet, and a school gate held a poignant tribute to a teacher who had died.

Happy birthday, Grandma
Happy birthday, Brendon
Mrs Salt

Some messages expressed thanks, encouragement, or hope.

We will get through this
Thank you
Stay safe

Children created lending libraries on tables and art galleries on fences.

Table library
Art on fence

Even canal boats had something to say.

Canal boat
Canal boat message

I wasn’t sure what this was all about until I looked up Conversations From Calais which aims to re-humanise those affected by the refugee crisis by using public space to share conversations volunteers have had with migrants met in Calais.

Conversations from Calais
Conversations from Calais

There were many other political messages in evidence.

Black lives matter
Black lives matter
Black lives matter
Black lives matter
Racism is small
75 years of nuclear horror
Virus tyranny
Independence Road
No Fascists
Climate change will kill your children

And finally, there was the plain odd!

Empire doesn’t care
Staring contest

So that was my August – a month of widening horizons. Unfortunately, this week things took a backward step with Glasgow being put into “local measures” because of increasing infection levels. It’s not lockdown, but we’re no longer allowed to visit other people’s homes. Here’s hoping that will have changed for the better by the end of the month. Happy September everyone!

Scotland, UK , , ,

70 Comments »

  1. Anabel, we had a chance to do a little travelling within B.C. in August, but now COVID-19 new cases are climbing again here too — about 100 new cases a day in BC presently, and really big spikes in Ontario and Quebec. So our public health officials are recommending really pulling back, for example, celebrating Thanksgiving with household members only, and limiting contact to our six-person bubbles.

    Jude

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    • Very similar here – it all seemed to coincide with schools and colleges going back. We can’t visit anyone inside their homes now, apart from extended households, which you are allowed to be part of if you live alone, and for the purpose of care and assistance. Both of those exceptions allow us to visit my mum’s, fortunately. It’s scary worldwide.

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  3. I was going to say how nice it is that you are able to get out a bit more but it seems that may be coming to an end. I did see on the news this morning that cases in the UK are on the rise again. Stay safe and well.

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    • Cases are definitely on the rise. Schools are back and I dread to think what will happen when higher ed students start moving about the country. So far the new restrictions are on meeting people and not travel – so we can still get out of Glasgow for walks. It has scuppered family visits though because I can no longer take my mum to visit her sister. Mum and I are in restricted areas, my aunt isn’t.

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  4. A mixed bag of a month. Such a shame Huntershill house is left as is. As for Thomas Muir, he might have died young but what a life he lived. You find the most intriguing places and stories!

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  5. Looks like you still managed to get some interesting walks in (more interesting than the ones I’ve been on anyway)! I love all the Mavis Valley critters! Still a little bit weirded out by the use of “martyrs” to describe people who had been transported, as with the Tolpuddle martyrs that I blogged about some time ago, but I do get what they mean, I just always associated the term with people who had actually been executed or otherwise died for their beliefs before seeing it used in this way in Britain.

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  6. Anabel, your August sounds heavenly. I’m sure it felt so good to get out and about. Wonderful that you finally got your Easter holiday, and I love all the messages that you photographed. Here’s hoping that your September is even more enjoyable. ~Terri

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  7. I can’t believe another month has passed already again. Your August was very diverse and interesting. You two are active people with all those walks and explorations. I’m glad you finally got to take that Easter vacation.

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  10. I never tire seeing people’s creativity as in the carved trees and of course slogans are always a bit of a laugh. I won’t say so much about Karen’s as that’s my sister in laws name, she’s not a fascist just bossy.

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  11. Always love to see what people write in public. Microcosm of life. ‘No fascists, no Karens!’ We have a friend called Karen. She’s deeply p*****d by that nominal appropriation though not as much as my brother when the punk classic ‘Gordon is a moron’ appeared. Keep walking.

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    • I can see your brother might not have liked that song! I know some Karens too (of various spellings) and I can’t think of one who isn’t nice. I’ve only been aware of it since the current crisis began but apparently it’s been a meme for a while. First one I saw was a cat saying “Karen, we have to talk. You’re in my house too much lately“. Thought it was a random choice of name at the time.

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  12. You have certainly made the most of your local area. Always surprising how fast nature reclaims former busy communities until they are almost unrecognizable as villages, large works, or hamlets without the help of info boards to give you an idea of former glory..Visited a street recently in the city that is just a flat wood now yet is currently listed online with house prices of homes for sale that no longer exist. Obviously no one checked it out first.

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  14. I’m sorry you’ve had to step back a bit in your lockdown. It’s what we should have been doing all along! At least you have expanded your horizons. I love your views in that first set of pictures; what beautiful weather you had. I also love all the messages on the bench and related to COVID lockdown; also the political messages give me some hope. I’m so happy to see you out and about. 🙂

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  15. I think your blog is like an archive of all the messages and art that people created over these strange times. We certainly have lived through history! Hope things change for the better soon in Glasgow. We seem to be getting away with it here in the Ribble Valley, though all the surrounding bigger places seem to be in and out of local lockdowns all the time.
    Glad you got to go on holiday. Must have been lovely. Looking Fwd to hearing more about it. X

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  16. What fab pictures, again. You obviously had good weather for your holiday. I envy you. Although we are not in lockdown I still don’t feel safe leaving home, so I’m just here champing at the bit. Glad you managed the break though, it is such a lovely feeling to wander in different neighbourhoods.

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  17. Anabel – your walks are so encouraging. Hope all settles back into your normal soon. Here, we are still mid-lockdown, small outside gatherings are okay, but things have never gotten past that. But, we are staying much safer than most of the USA, and I won’t argue with success. Cheers – Susan

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  19. Good to know you’ve been getting out and about. I have not doen as well, although I have done a lot of gardening, and also nearly ready with my next book 🙂
    Love the notices… I saw a few hand-made rainbows around here, but not much otherwise.

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  22. Hi, Anabel – I’m so glad that you and John have been able to continue galivanting — even it is a slightly different version of travel/exploring than you would normally have had in mind. I love the messages of hope and inspiration.
    Sending warm thoughts that the virus will slow down and your new local measures will end again soon.

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  23. Hi Anabel – so glad you were able to get away … must be a blessing – now you’ve got lock-down back in your neck of the woods. Wonderful array of photos with quirky ideas, and some plain sad thoughts … we are in strange times. I’ve decided I now need to look forward to Easter next year … and then I’ll worry … til then I’ll carry on coping and writing about my past trips and visits. All the best to the two of you – Hilary

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    • Getting away was a lovely change. We only have a partial lockdown, not visiting other people’s houses, so we can still get out and about. We weren’t doing much visiting anyway, apart from my Mum’s house, and that’s still covered as we operate as an extended household. It’s worrying though. Like you, we try not to look to far ahead and take things as they come.

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  26. Excellent post. You’ve crammed a lot into your month as ever! The Conversations with Calais pictures are particularly interesting.

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  27. You have certainly managed to get out and explore when you have had the chance which is great as things can change so quickly such that you don’t know what tomorrow might bring. Make the most of today.

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  28. It certainly doesn’t look like you let the grass grow under your feet during August, did you ever stay in?? 🙂 I like the three little pigs and the bench with the messages; a shame Huntershill house has gone to rack and ruin, it looks like it could be a nice property if restored sympathetically.

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