Glasgow Gallivanting: July 2026
Having not revisited Paisley since I finished dealing with my late mother’s house in early 2022, I have now been back three times this year! This time I went to see the Renfrewshire Tapestry consisting of eight large panels telling the history of the county and numerous small teardrops (referencing the Paisley Pattern) made by members of the public to their own design. Here are my four favourite panels.
And here are just some of my favourite teardrops.
As part of the trip to Paisley I collected two more Scotties, one in Central Station and one outside Paisley Abbey. Worldie has his tickets in his pocket for the World Cup (and was no doubt sadly disappointed) while Paisley and Proud also references Paisley patterns which drift like clouds across the surface.
Glasgow Women’s Library has three exhibitions at the moment, and this is the one I enjoyed the most. In The Saltire Series Alixandra Prybyla collaborated with the many wonderful immigrant and refugee communities associated with the Library to reimagine what it means to belong in Scotland: this is particularly important at the moment when far-right racists have been demonstrating in our streets. Through cyanotype workshops, participants remade the Scottish saltire flag from objects that carry stories of immigration. Also on display were 88 small cards, on which each woman described the object she had chosen and its significance to her, and a lovely quote from Toni Morrison.
We had a brief trip down to Yorkshire to visit friends. On the first day we visited Burnby Hall Gardens and on the second, Plumpton Rocks – both new to me.
Burnby Hall was occupied by Major Percy Stewart and his wife Katherine from 1901 until Percy’s death in 1962. The couple had two main interests in life – creating beautiful gardens and travelling the world. Today the gardens are a registered charity and there is a small museum on site with some of the artefacts collected during the Stewarts’ journeys.
The Upper and Lower Lakes are home to over 100 varieties of waterlily which flower between mid-June and the end of August. The Upper Lake is also home to thousands of very hungry carp, roach, and rudd. No wonder they were selling fish food at the entrance!
There are other interesting features too. The Stumpery created mainly from the upturned roots of large trees:
The giraffes:
The Dovecote and the Secret Garden:
And the Edwardian Garden and a (rather unflattering) relief of Major Stewart:
Finally, the artefacts in the museum are mostly as you would expect from the Edwardian travelling collector / pillager so I was more interested in some of the quotes from the Major’s writings, particularly his thoughts on the Taj Mahal and his self-deprecating reason for travelling.
The Stewarts created the lakes at Burnby Hall. The one at Plumpton Rocks looks much more natural, but is just as artificial. Originally created in the 1760s, the site has been restored to its 18th-century glory, with dramatic millstone grit rock formations and woodland trails as well as the lake. The scenic views once inspired artist J.M.W. Turner who painted it around 1798.
And finally, to finish off, a few views from the cyclist.
Linked to Natalie’s July Monthly Wrap-Up. Happy August!
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
The tapestries look beautiful indeed and it is fun to see more of the Scotties. The giraffe are particularly well made and actually look fairly real from your distance shot 🙂
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Interestingly, when my friend looked at her photos from her last visit a few years ago there was only one giraffe!
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Every time I read your posts I seem to write the same comments…how wonderfully interesting and inspiring your visits are and great photos to illustrate! I am repeating the comment again! I love and admire all the work of the Paisley pattern and The Saltire Series such talented artistic creators.
The gardens look wonderful with all those many lilies and fish….crikey they look quite hungry and fierce! Thank you again for sharing your visits out…hope you leave time to rest!
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Oh, I’m good at resting too! Today has been a feet-up day. The fish were amusing the way they kept pushing each other out of the way – to the delight of the small child feeding them.
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Another interesting month for you, and for us to read about! The Paisley teardrops are a lovely idea and I’m checking out your two Yorkshire visit locations to see if we might build one into our weekend up in Ripon later this month – Plumpton Rocks looks a possibility 🙂
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Plumpton Rocks is just outside Harrogate so not too far from Ripon. NB it’s only open at weekends and has no facilities. Well, there’s a Portaloo and the woman at the gate has a box of snacks and drinks but that’s it! Mind you, it doesn’t take long to walk round. We did it between morning coffee and lunch.
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Thanks for the tips 🙂
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I was so engrossed in this post my brew almost went cold. The gardens at Burnby Hall look beautiful even with grey cloudy skies. Plumpton Rocks looks good too. You’re tempting me to make a journey – both too far for just a day but maybe next year I could do a couple of camping trips in that direction. As for the Scotties, Paisley and Proud is my favourite, he’s lovely. When I was 15 I made myself a dress in a Paisley pattern fabric, it was one of my favourites and I wore it many times.
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And all those fish! There must have been hundreds gathered there – the poor things look so hungry but I bet they weren’t 😀
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They weren’t hungry really, I don’t think, but had learned that approaching humans = food and would rush up to the edge. In the second picture there was a small child out of shot feeding them who was absolutely ecstatic, dancing with glee.
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I’m glad you found the post diverting, but sorry about the brew! Both gardens were lovely. I also had a paisley pattern dress, but made by my mother when I was about 10. It was needle cord with long sleeves and a stand up collar and I loved it. My sister had one in a different pattern – I think it was one of those cut out and ready to sew packs that women’s magazines used to sell. We had a lot of those! Sometimes mum would get 4 and they would be passed down the line – fine for me as the oldest, but my little cousin would get the same dress 4 times in different colours!
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My dress was also made from a cut out and ready to sew patterns, a lot of my clothes were, The patterns were called ‘Simplicity’ and my mum got them from a town centre department store, I used to love going with her to choose something for myself. This particular dress was a simple A-line with sleeves, the background was pink with the Paisley design in dark red outlined in black with tiny splashes of light green – sounds horrible from the description but it was really nice.
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I remember Simplicity paper patterns, but these were kits where you got the material too.
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My mother used Simplicity patterns for many of our dresses and sometimes another make – Butterworth, I think.
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Yes, that sounds right! My mother sewed a lot of our clothes but it was not a talent she passed on to me.
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You saw a very interesting variety of sights and sites in July. It was a good month!
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Yes, both indoor and outdoor sights! I enjoyed all of them.
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Wow, a very busy month. I do like the two new doggies and the gardens are wonderful. I particularly like the water lilies; one of my favourite flowers. (Suzanne)
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The dogs are only around for another 10 days or so. I need to chase up a few more! It was lovely to see all the water lilies on the lakes.
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