Glasgow Gallivanting: September 2025

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Bench for Donald and Elizabeth McKenzie

We had a day out to Perth this month where we started by visiting Branklyn Garden. I took my parents here many years ago, but John had never visited before.

As well as looking out for benches for Jude, I was looking for one particular bench – the one above! Here I am sitting on it, the same bench on which I snapped Mum and Dad in 2013. I was able to match it by the inscription to Donald and Elizabeth McKenzie, though it looks as though it has moved position in the intervening 12 years as I can’t see any steps behind Mum and Dad.

Anabel on bench 2025
Perth 2013

The garden still had some colour in it, although the leaves hadn’t quite reached their autumn hues. We had a good stroll and (just as important) a good lunch in the café.

Branklyn Garden
Fountain Garden
Branklyn Garden
Bark of Tibetan Cherry
Branklyn Garden

From the garden it was a pleasant walk along the River Tay to cross the bridge to the Art Gallery. We passed heather gardens, sculptures (including one aptly named Bench Mark) odd tree trunks and old notices.

John in the heather garden
Millais’ Viewpoint by Tim Shutter
Reason by David Wilson
Unusual tree trunk
Bench Mark by John Creed
Bench Mark by John Creed
Old notice on West Bridge Street

The Art Gallery was interesting – even the Ladies was well decorated!

European Beaver by Michelle de Bruin
Unicorn by Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Looking down from the photography gallery in the dome
Modern Scots Gallery
Murals in the Ladies by Ellietype and Lindsay Grime

On the way back to the station our eye was caught by a beautiful building – the former King James VI Hospital. Although the founding date is shown as 1587, this building dates from 1750 and was renovated as housing in 1976. Coincidentally, when we reached the station the Royal Scotsman was at the next platform as it had been in Dundee when we came home from our daytrip there last month.

King James VI Hospital
Royal Scotsman

It is 850 years since Glasgow became a Burgh, although there was a settlement here long before that, and various events are taking place throughout 2025 under the banner of Glasgow 850. One of these is Glasgow Close Knit which was displayed in Kelvin West Parish Church (formerly Wellington Church) for a few days in the middle of the month. In a city-wide communal activity countless hands have knitted and crocheted thousands of squares which have been sewn together into hundreds of blankets.

I gasped with delight when I walked into the church, and was then invited to step into the pulpit for a better view.

Glasgow Close Knit

In front of the altar were four blankets depicting the miracles of St Mungo, Glasgow’s patron saint: the bird that never flew, the tree that never grew, the bell that never rang, and the fish that never swam. These symbols also make up Glasgow’s Coat of Arms.

Miracles of St Mungo
Miracles of St Mungo

Later in the year the blankets will be distributed through the Lodging House Mission to people experiencing homelessness and isolation across the City in a communal expression of care for vulnerable people in need of security and warmth. An amazing project.

I was in Edinburgh again to meet a friend for lunch and, because I was a bit early, I took a long way round through some of the old closes off the Canongate. I found these beautiful panels in Pirrie’s Close. They were installed in 2021 and are the work of Isla Munro, Astrid Jaekel and Chris Dobson.

Overhead panels
One of the wall panels

John has, of course, done a lot of cycling. He comes back with many beautiful views but this month I was most interested in a building which I have never visited myself but would like to. This is the former Argyll Motor Works in Alexandria. Built in 1902 it only produced cars for a few years before being sold in 1914 to the Admiralty as a torpedo factory, in which role it continued through two World Wars. After a chequered history in between, in the 1990s it became a shopping centre. Who could imaging cars being manufactured in such a place today?

Exterior
Interior

Also – who could resist being sent this photo from the Top of the World? (It’s a viewpoint in Stirlingshire).

Made it!

So those have been some of my September highlights. I hope you have had a good month too, and happy October!

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  2. Pingback: This week's small pleasures.

  5. Looks like a good month to me, Anabel. It seems like you always find new things to do and see in the city. That Close Knit display is incredible. Just wow! And I liked the shot of the Tibetan Cherry Tree’s bark as well. Have a happy October!

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  9. Fantastic display and such an eyeful of colours! You do get to find such amazing places and take great photos of them all.

    I am currently locked out of WordPress and can only access posts through their emails!! This might all go wrong!!

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  14. Some of the best bits of Perth there. Doh! I’m just back from Edinburgh today and passed that area but never spotted those panels. I’ve been in the Argyll Motor Building many times as I used to work nearby. Nice interiors. Bob. BSS.

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  17. Lovely to see some autumn colour in those gardens and how nice that you managed to find that bench! I loved the Millais’ Viewpoint sculpture framing the church spire, and that Close Knit project sounds fantastic 🙂

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  18. I love the Glasgow Close Knit and those intricate panels. And John made it to the top of the world! The Royal Scotsman looks very colorful and elegant. It looks like you had a wonderful September.

    A question: we’re considering coming to live somewhere in Europe for 2027. If we left the E.U. every three months and came to Scotland, since you’re not part of the E.U., would that restart our European visa for another 3 months?

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  19. Lots of lovely gallivanting and a bench for me! I would have liked to have visited  Branklyn Garden when we were in Dunkeld in 2016 but ran out of time so thank you for the virtual visit. The idea of being able to visit cities by train for a day trip is growing on me. Maybe my life as a country mouse is beginning to lose appeal.

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  22. Wow! Those blankets in the church certainly make a very colourful display, you got a great photo there. I love the ladies in the art gallery and the unicorn looks really pretty.

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