A City Centre Scottie walk

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Sir-Wags-A-Lot by Amy Tomlinson

Our walk began in Cowcaddens outside the National Piping Centre where we found Sir-Wags-A-Lot with his tartan tongue. Sponsored by Walker’s Shortbread, he has shortbread fingers on his sporran and shortbread rounds on his chest and shoulders.

We liked Tenement Scottie on Buchanan Street with a different streetscape on each of his sides.

Tenement Scottie by Daniela Pettinato

Cutting through to Royal Exchange Square we admired Duke emulating his namesake, the Duke of Wellington, whose statue has worn a traffic cone since the 1980s. Unlike an earlier Scottie I featured which had been crowned by an actual cone, Duke’s cone is integral to the statue which shows elements of Glasgow’s skyline on either side. In the last photo below you can see both Duke the Scottie and the Duke of Wellington who is wearing four cones for some reason, plus at least two more on Copenhagen the horse. It’s a miracle no-one has ever been badly hurt maintaining this rather weird tradition.

Duke by Cat Mackenzie

On the way to our next target we stopped to admire some other street art. The monument in Hutcheson Street was created in 2005 to commemorate 200 years of the Letter of Guildry. This document regulated the roles and organisation of merchants and craftsmen within the city with the sculpture representing a basket containing some of their tools. The large mural, Keeper of Light by Smug, is also symbolic with every element representing some aspect of the local community. The latest Spiderman movie was partly filmed in Glasgow, and I recently spotted the smaller murals in a short compilation of clips which showed the city. Fame for Frodrik and others!

Letter of Guildry 1605-2005
Keeper of Light by Smug

Parallel to Hutcheson Street, in Wilson Street, is a mural which speaks for itself and this tiny yellow car whose purpose I am unsure of. You’ll spot it again in the next gallery because there was a Scottie right next it.

#info4women
Microlino

That Scottie was Nature Reclaims representing the spontaneous rewilding of derelict sites.

Nature Reclaims by David Crossley
Nature Reclaims by David Crossley
Photographing the plaque

Time ran out on us here – we had some shopping to do in town – but we continued the trail eastwards a few days later. Ground Control to Major Canis on the site of the old Rottenrow Maternity Hospital featured portraits of real dogs.

Ground Control to Major Canis by Jina Gelder

Outside the Cathedral one of my favourites, Rennie, was inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s designs.

Rennie by Gayani Ariyaratne

Inside the Necropolis Cù-Sìth looked suitably bony. Cù-Sìth, pronounced Koo-Shee, is a fairy dog said to roam the Scottish Highlands.

Cù-Sìth by Adam Wright

Finally there were two Scotties at Glasgow Green. Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! sat near the Saltmarket entrance (and yes, the title really does contain Dogs! seven times).

Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! by Dave Sutton

The Tunnock’s Teacake Scottie was at the other end of the Green near the Doulton Fountain. Lovers of Tunnock’s confectionary will recognise the wrappings in the guise of travel patches. I’m a caramel wafer girl myself.

Tunnock’s Teacake Travel Patch Scottie by Rebeca Johnstone

And that’s the end of the trail – the Scotties left the city on August 16th and will be auctioned off for charity (Maggie’s) on 10th September. I gave up on the numerous small statues at an early stage, but of the 40 large statues I collected 30 including all those in the West End and the City Centre, except for one which was vandalised and had to be taken away for repair. Other than those on our Clydeside Walk a few weeks ago I didn’t collect any on the Southside – they were just too scattered. As well as these two walks I’ve also shown a few Scotties in my Gallivanting posts for June and July. However, there are still a few which haven’t appeared at all so, for the sake of completeness, here they are.

A reasonably accurate map of Glasgow West by Adrian B McMurchie
Beam me up Scottie by Michael Richardson
Champ by Sandra Russell
Lochie by Douglas Roulston
Dear Green Place by Adriana de Matos
Scottiestoun by Roma McCook
Kibble – the Greenhouse Scottie by Rose Kendall
Scotland’s Big 5 by Mel Grandidge

Any favourites?

Linking to Jo’s Monday Walk.

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71 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Bingley 5 Rise locks | Still Restlessjo
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  5. This is such a fun idea and I would not be able to choose a favourite as they are all so cleverly done. I’d never heard of Tunnock’s tea cakes until my birthday in July when I was gifted a box of them. Oh my – what a yummy treat. I intend keeping an eye out for them when I go to our nearest Aldi, which is probably the only place you can get them here.

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  8. these are great! I love them all but I like the nature one and dogs, dogs, dogs…. I also love the beam me up Scottie even though you didn’t see it. Im back!

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  9. I love all the Scotties you shared. It’s hard to choose a favourite. If pressed, I’d choose Rennie. The murals are great, too. The beaver statues in Toronto were also auctioned off for charity. One of them had a bid of more than two thousand dollars.

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  11. Well done for getting so many different dogs and the long suffering Duke probably looks back fondly to a time when he didn’t have street furniture placed on his head, every few days. Bob. BSS.

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  16. That’s a good tally, Anabel. Some of them are just plain dotty, but I love their expressions. I have a soft spot for shortbread and the Rennie Mackintosh is particularly handsome. I’ll be contributing to them being around a bit longer, as I won’t have a walk up next week. Thanks, hon xx

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  17. Such a treat to see and read about all the brilliant Scotties. It’s a shame that they couldn’t all have been taken to another town/city to be shown…they are all fantastic but my favourite is Rennie! Thank you for taking all those lovely photos!

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    • That statue has had a cone since some time in the 1980s. The council has stopped trying to take them down and it has become tradition. Sometimes they make a statement (eg decorated as the EU flag at Brexit), sometimes they are just cones. Wellington is seen (rightly) as an imperial figure so he isn’t well respected here anyway!

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  20. My son has sent me pictures of some of the Scotties he has come across on his walks through Glasgow, so I am delighted to see what the others look like. I hope they raise a lot of money 🙂 🙂

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  21. Thank you for sharing all of the Scottie Dogs with us! I would have loved to have seen them in person so I have enjoyed seeing them through your blog, the next best thing. I have done a few of these decorated statue trails and I think the Scottie design is up there for the best.

    As someone who loves mythology and folklore, I am definitely drawn to Cù-Sìth. However, I also love (and miss) Tunnock’s confections so that one has a place in my heart (or stomach too). And the Charles Rennie Mackintosh one is gorgeous.

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  24. I can imagine some of them will fetch much, much more. Especially for a wonderful charity.. No, I haven’t got £3k to spare, but I’d bid for several, including Mackintosh and Rewilding, if I had money to burn. I’m sure they would enjoy my garden 🙂

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  25. I’m rather charmed by all the ones you’ve shown us, so no, no favourites. They seem to have become a real part of Glasgow, and I was shocked to read that I’ve now missed any chance of choosing my favourite charmer. They’ll be missed, won’t they? But will doubtless raise lots of money when auctioned. I had to look up the chosen charity: it seems a worthwhile cause.

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  29. Lots of great Scotties here, you did well to get 30 out of the 40 – I would have gone for the whole lot though 😊 I particularly like Rennie and Dear Green Place but favourite is Nature Reclaims. Love the little bubble car too, it’s cute.

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