Glasgow

Graveyards of Glasgow: Cathcart Cemetery

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter48 Comments

A few months ago, my friend Beverly McFarlane told me that she was engaged on some research about a forgotten suffragette, but she couldn’t reveal who or why. She knew I’d be intrigued, and at the end of August my anticipation was rewarded when her secret turned out to be even better than I had expected. A combination of an organisation called Protests and Suffragettes and journalist Dani Garavelli had discovered the presence of Henria Williams in Cathcart Cemetery and, via the Women’s Library, Beverly had been asked to find out more about her life. It’s worth clicking on the link in the tweet above to read the full story – suffice it to say, Henria was one of the few suffragettes who died in pursuit of the cause and her funeral was almost like that of a soldier.

Naturally, I wanted to see the grave myself and the day the article came out we set off for Cathcart, on Glasgow’s Southside, to view it. Despite Henria’s heroic send-off, the Williams family tomb had since been forgotten and neglected and was badly overgrown with a tree obscuring its angel.

Henria Williams’ grave
Henria Williams’ grave
Henria Williams’ grave

But joy! Dani and fellow journalist Peter Ross (author of A tomb with a view which is high on my to-be-read list) both report that the grave has now been cleared. I feel another visit is called for …

When we had entered the cemetery we had thought it quite well kept, but the further in we got, the more overgrown it became. Henria was not the only one to be obscured. Here are a few more of the memorials which caught our eye in the main section of the cemetery.

Cathcart Cemetery
Cathcart Cemetery
Cathcart Cemetery
Cathcart Cemetery
Cathcart Cemetery
Cathcart Cemetery

There is also a large Jewish section where I was in pursuit of further women’s history, because Dani’s article mentioned that artist Hannah Frank is buried here. Hannah features in two of Glasgow Women’s Library’s walks: the Gorbals, where she was born in 1908 to Russian emigrants fleeing persecution, and Garnethill where she graduated from Glasgow School of Art.

In her early career Hannah was renowned for her distinctive black and white pen drawings, and she later took up sculpture. The example of her work shown next to her grave below is part of a set of murals, designed by artist Liz Peden and unveiled in 2016, under the Cleland Street railway arches in the Gorbals. Hannah’s section includes the quote “My ambition, in Longfellow’s words was to leave footprints on the sands of time”.  She almost didn’t: in 2002, by which time her work was almost forgotten, Hannah moved into a nursing home. She asked her niece Fiona to disperse her drawings and sculptures around her family and friends, but fortunately  Fiona showed the work to art curators, and from there exhibitions around the country and abroad were organised. Hannah lived a very long life, dying shortly after her 100th birthday in 2008.

Hannah Frank
Hannah Frank mural, Gorbals

This was a really interesting afternoon in a cemetery I didn’t know at all, thanks to Dani and her curiosity about a lost suffragette. The next Graveyards of Glasgow post will be Calton Burial Ground.

Graveyards of Glasgow: Western Necropolis and St Kentigern’s

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter37 Comments
Cenotaph, Western Necropolis

Glasgow’s main Necropolis, which I wrote about last time, is not the only one in the city which also boasts Southern, Eastern and Western Necropoli. I’ve yet to visit the Eastern one, the Southern has appeared in a long ago post on the Gorbals, and the Western first appeared (along with its neighbour, Lambhill Cemetery) in May’s Gallivanting post, a visit which inspired us to go back to explore further.

Western Necropolis

Western Necropolis
Memorial to South African War 1899-1902

Established in 1882, the Western Necropolis was one of several non-denominational cemeteries established to cope with the huge demand for burial space created by the rapid expansion of Victorian Glasgow. Garden cemeteries were designed to be recreational spaces where contemplation of death was made less painful by careful layout and design. The Western was the last of the four Necropoli to be created, and the only one to have a crematorium on the grounds: built in 1895 it was the first crematorium in Scotland and only the third in Great Britain. Opposite the cenotaph and crematorium is the monument shown above, It commemorates the South African War of 1899-1902, the Second Boer War.

Further into the necropolis we found a grave for which we were specifically looking. Sir William Alexander Smith, who founded the Boys’ Brigade in Glasgow in 1883, is buried here with his wife and other family members. His headstone is shown below in a gallery which also includes images of the building in North Woodside Road where the BB began, and of its commemorative plaque.

Grave of William Smith, Boys’ Brigade founder
Boys’ Brigade founded here
Boys’ Brigade foundation plaque

Other graves to catch my eye included (left to right below) Isobel MacKinnon Gardner who died at the young age of 32 in 1908, an array of Celtic crosses, and the three-part Walker memorial. The last one prompted some further research into “David Walker of Belmont, Kelvinside Gardens, and Principal of Belgravia College, Glasgow” who died in 1906.

Isobel MacKinnon Gardner
Celtic crosses
Walker memorial, Western Necropolis

I had never heard of Belgravia College, but it turns out to be a school for young ladies situated on Newton Terrace, Sauchiehall Street. To appreciate fully the floridity of its description it’s worth following the link to this 1891 business directory entry, but here’s a flavour:

The College, which was established in the year 1868, has had a career of great usefulness and academical prosperity. Having been instituted for the special purpose of providing young ladies with a very complete course of instruction, in all branches of a liberal English education, upon the most moderate of terms, it has with a remarkable elasticity of constitution adjusted itself to the varying needs of the age, and to-day, by reason of its admirable appointments, excellent management, and efficient teaching staff, occupies a position of scholastic repute of no mean order.

Lucky young ladies!

Infant Memorial Garden
Infant Memorial Garden

The Western Necropolis forms part of a larger cemetery network with the adjoining Lambhill Cemetery and St Kentigern’s. Having visited the former last time, this time we crossed into the latter via the poignant Infant Memorial Garden, as shown above.

St Kentigern’s

St. Kentigern’s Roman Catholic Cemetery was established, like the Western Necropolis, in 1882 and is named after the founder of Glasgow (also known as St Mungo). Many memorials feature beautiful, if sentimental, sculptures.

Grace McCann
Agnes Kane and James Graham
St Kentigern’s Cemetery
Giuliani
Kinney
Casci and Equi
Kennedy and MacEachen
Franchi

Two memorials of note are shown below. The worst pit disaster in the area was at Cadder, in August 1913, when 22 miners were killed. Most lived locally and all of Lambhill turned out for the funeral cortege. This collective memorial for the eleven Catholic miners was erected in St Kentigern’s, while the others had individual stones in Lambhill Cemetery.

Benny Lynch (1913-1976) was the undefeated flyweight champion of the world and the first Scotsman to win a world boxing title. His black marble headstone was erected by fans, features an image of him boxing, and has the inscription “Always a fighter”

Cadder Pit Disaster Memorial
Benny Lynch

Jewish cemetery

Finally, we arrived back at the entrance to the Western Necropolis via the Jewish section which serves Garnethill Synagogue in the city centre (also shown).

Jewish Cemetery
Garnethill Synagogue

Next time: Cathcart Cemetery

Graveyards of Glasgow: the Necropolis

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter69 Comments

Glasgow Necropolis, Scotland’s first garden cemetery, opened in 1833 on the hilly site of the former Fir Park, a location which gives a pleasing tiered view. At the bottom of the hill is Glasgow Cathedral, and the top is dominated by the 12 ft statue of John Knox on its 58 ft column. Knox, the most prominent figure of the Scottish Reformation, is not buried here: the statue predates the Necropolis by several years.

Glasgow Cathedral and Royal Infirmary from the Necropolis
John Knox statue in Glasgow Necropolis
John Knox always visible!
Glasgow Necropolis
Glasgow Necropolis (Monteath Mausoleum)

I have featured Glasgow Necropolis several times before – it’s a favourite place to wander, and is one of the Glasgow Women’s Library Heritage Walks that I help to lead in more normal years. However, there’s always something new to discover and my files are full of unused photographs of favourite graves. It won’t surprise you to know that many of them tell a women’s heritage story, and most of them are in GWL’s walk – here are a few which aren’t (but which might be in the future).

Margaret Montgomerie

Glasgow Necropolis: Margaret Montgomerie
Glasgow Necropolis: Margaret Montgomerie

This beautiful Gothic monument, modelled on Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster, was commissioned by Matthew Montgomerie in 1842 for his wife Margaret. Originally, it was adorned by Mossman sculptures of Hope and Resignation which have since disappeared. Poor Margaret (like many women alive in his time, including Mary Queen of Scots) cannot escape the scrutiny of John Knox who looks down on her from above.

Frances Phillips and Miss Cates

Glasgow Necropolis: Frances Phillips and Miss Cates
Glasgow Necropolis: Frances Phillips and Miss Cates

Miss Cates became the second wife of solicitor and travel writer William Rae Wilson, to whom she erected this mausoleum in 1849. It’s built in Moorish-style with inverted torches carved on the outside, symbolic of death and resurrection. Miss Cates is also buried here, but I can find no further information about her, other than that she was “an English lady of good family”. The inscription merely records her as William’s affectionate wife. The tomb’s third occupant is William’s first wife, Frances Phillips. I wonder who he chose to spend the afterlife with?

Eliza Jane Aikman

Glasgow Necropolis: Eliza Jane Aikman
Glasgow Necropolis: Eliza Jane Aikman

Eliza Jane Aikman (1852-1929) was Glasgow’s first female Parish Councillor and founded the Glasgow Infant Health Visitors Association, the basis for child welfare practice. “One who went about doing good and having served her day and generation by the will of God fell on sleep”.

Helen Marshall Rough

Glasgow Necropolis: Helen Rough
Glasgow Necropolis: Helen Rough

Helen Rough, who died in 1932, was the founder of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Cooperation of Trained Nurses. We specifically went looking for her grave during lockdown after my friend and fellow tour guide, Beverly McFarlane, did some research on her which gave me a personal interest. Helen is buried here with her sister, Jane, and brother-in-law, James Bell, English Master at the High School of Glasgow. In the census of 1871 Helen is recorded in James’s household, an address which I recognised instantly as the home of my mother-in-law over a century later (she died in 1993), although by then the house was divided into flats and she occupied what would have been the drawing room floor in Helen’s time. I was delighted by this coincidence.

More information

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour of some of the lesser known women in Glasgow Necropolis.

There are several places to go for more information. GWL and the City Council have downloadable guides and maps (and another guide, Louise Bell, has done a Twitter version of GWL’s). The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis is a splendid organisation which offers guided tours and raises money to restore neglected tombs.

GWL Glasgow Necropolis Women’s Heritage Walk

Glasgow City Council Necropolis Heritage Trail

Friends of Glasgow Necropolis

Next time: the Western Necropolis.

Glasgow Gallivanting: September 2020

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter69 Comments
Craigmaddie Muir, Auld Wives’ Lifts and the Campsies

We’ve had some lovely, bright weekends in September which have been great for getting out and about. The walk to the Auld Wives’ Lifts on Craigmaddie Muir was one we’d wanted to do for a while – the Lifts being the rocks you can see middle right in the image above, with the Campsie fells and the prominent knob of Dumgoyne visible in the background.

The Lifts consist of three extremely large pieces of grey sandstone, one propped on top of the other two with a space between them. Couples who were considering marriage used to try to squeeze through the gap in an anticlockwise direction; if they weren’t successful, the marriage was doomed! The stones might be connected with worship of some sort and have been a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

Craigmaddie Muir
Auld Wives’ Lifts
The gap

Legend has it that three witches from Baldernock, Strathblane and Campsie carried the stones to prove their strength. They are covered in Victorian graffiti as well as about eight carved heads or faces, which look ancient but seem not to have been noticed, or at least written about, until the 1970s.

Victorian graffiti
Face

The walk itself was not particularly pleasant, being over muddy, rutted fields and boggy ground, but the views, one way back towards Glasgow and the other to the Campsies and Ben Lomond, were beautiful.

View of Glasgow
View of Campsies and Ben Lomond

A walk above the Ayrshire coastal town of Largs to Greeto Bridge also afforded good views and a welcome glimpse of the sea. The islands of Great Cumbrae and Arran can be seen beyond the town.

Greeto Bridge
Greeto Water
Greeto Water
View to Cumbrae and Arran
Largs from above

Milngavie, just north of Glasgow, is the start of the West Highland Way. We used the beginning of the trail to branch off onto a couple of other walks.

West Highland Way, Milngavie
West Highland Way, Milngavie
War Memorial, Milngavie

We saw more pretty countryside.

Countryside near Milngavie
Countryside near Milngavie

We came across several more sets of Scholars Rocks by Rachel Mimiec, previously encountered elsewhere in East Dunbartonshire in July, and parts of a new (to us) artwork, Home by Alex Allan, naming women workers in industries previously located in Milngavie.

Scholars Rocks by Rachel Mimiec
Home by Alex Allan

And we skirted the edge of Mugdock and Craigmaddie Reservoirs. It’s a long time since we’ve walked all the way round these two – maybe next month!

Mugdock Reservoir
Mugdock Reservoir
Craigmaddie Reservoir

September has also been a month for women’s history. Students returned to university and the usual Fresher’s Fairs were all conducted online. As part of this, Glasgow Women’s Library was invited to set out its wares in a programme for Subcity Radio and I did a slot on a couple of the women from our heritage tours. If you wish, you can listen here – I am on second, just after the two minute mark, and I speak for about six minutes.

I have also done another of my Twitter Walks, this time on the East End, which you can follow below.

While taking the photographs for the above walk we spotted a new mural in process on Abercromby Street. The third photograph shows the completed mural a few days later.

St Thenue by Mark Worst
St Thenue by Mark Worst
St Thenue by Mark Worst

St Thenue (also known as St Enoch) is pictured wearing a shawl featuring 29 motifs in honour of the victims of the 1889 Templeton’s carpet factory disaster when 29 women were killed by a collapsing wall. Legend has it that Thenue’s father, a pagan king, ordered her to be hurled from a hill in East Lothian when she became pregnant out of wedlock. When she miraculously survived she was put into a small boat and cast adrift in the Firth of Forth to perish. She was guided to shore by a shoal of fish and given shelter at the community of St Serf in Culross where she gave birth to her son, St Mungo, the Patron Saint of Glasgow.

Annie Lennox, Calvin Harris, Emili Sandé and Lewis Capaldi on the wall of Embargo

Another new mural this month is on the side wall of Embargo, a pub on Byres Road in the West End, and portrays Scottish music stars Annie Lennox, Calvin Harris, Emili Sandé and Lewis Capaldi. The mural is the work of local artist Rogue-One and is intended, according to the bar’s manager, as “a visual celebration of Scottish musical talent during a difficult time for the creative and hospitality industries alike.”

Finally, we encountered the highland cattle of Dawsholm Park again this month, so here are two of the most photogenic especially for Jessica!

Highland cattle
Highland cattle

So that’s it for September and what turns out to be my 700th post.  Restrictions are closing in again, but let’s not focus on the bad stuff. Wishing you all a happy October.

Dunning and Maggie Wall

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter64 Comments
St Serf’s Church, Dunning

On our way home from our short break in Blairgowrie we stopped in the small Perthshire village of Dunning. We’d visited before to see the 9th century Dupplin Cross which honours Constantine, King of the Picts. It’s housed inside St Serf’s Church, which is dedicated to a 6th-century Pictish bishop also known as Servanus. Legend has it that he used his pastoral staff to slay a dragon in Dunning – aye, right! Because of Covid restrictions the church wasn’t open, but we knew that – it wasn’t what I wanted to see.

About a mile outside Dunning is this memorial, inscribed “Maggie Wall burnt here as a witch 1657”.

So who was Maggie Wall? She is said to be the last witch executed in Scotland, but this is a mysterious story. There is no official record of a Maggie Wall burned at the stake as a witch, and historically the last witch burned to death in Scotland was Janet Horne in Dornoch in 1727. Research has uncovered no confirmation that Maggie Wall ever existed –  although six alleged witches were executed near Dunning in 1663, Maggie  wasn’t one of them.  Nor does anyone know for sure who built the memorial, or who regularly maintains the lettering.  Some people think it’s a hoax, but many people are drawn to visit the memorial and leave small tributes such as painted stones or even a golf ball. I left a small, gold-coloured mirror from my handbag.

Maggie Wall Memorial, Dunning
Maggie Wall Memorial, Dunning
Tributes
Tributes
Tributes

I’ve wanted to visit this site for years, ever since I first became a Glasgow Women’s Library tour guide. Maggie features in our East End Walk when we stop outside a pub on the Gallowgate, the Saracen Head, known locally as the Sarry Heid. The original Saracen Head was built in 1755 on land that used to be the kirkyard and burial grounds of Little St Mungo Church. It was a fashionable hotel, in which William and Dorothy Wordsworth stayed in 1803, but as the city moved west its reputation and standards declined. It was later converted to shops and dwellings then demolished in 1904, but the name survived.

The current pub has been here for over 100 years, but what does it have to do with Maggie? The Saracen Head claims to be Glasgow’s first (and possibly only?) pub-museum and one of the advertised exhibits is Maggie’s skull. (I have not been inside to verify this).

How did the skull of a woman who cannot be proved to have existed end up here? The cynical might say it could have been uncovered when the original building was demolished in 1904 – after all it was built on the site of an old burial ground and human remains have been uncovered there. But why Maggie Wall? Maybe this mythical figure represents all women who were executed as witches? It certainly makes a good story.

Back to Dunning before I finish – for a small village it has a lot of history with 108 listed buildings. It was the site of both an Iron Age fort and a Roman camp with the name probably deriving from the Gaelic Dùnainn meaning little fort.  For centuries it lay on the main route between Stirling and Perth, but in the nineteenth century it was bypassed by the railway and in the twentieth by road, the busy A9, so now it is a quiet little place. Here are a few things which caught our eye.

A tree was planted to commemorate the burning of Dunning during the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. The original tree blew down in 1936 and was replaced in 1937 “the year of the coronation of Their Majesties King George VI & Queen Elizabeth”.

Commemorative tree
Commemorative tree plaque
Commemorative tree plaque

The fountain at the centre of the village dates from 1874 and was gifted by Alexander Martin, a former Dunning resident, who made his fortune in New Brunswick as a confectioner.

Drinking fountain and Tron Square
Drinking fountain

Rollo Park was presented to the parish of Dunning in 1946 by John 12th Lord Rollo of Duncrub “to commemorate over 550 years of friendship between the families of Dunning and the family of Duncrub.” I’m not sure what the figure above the inscription is – could it be St Serf’s dragon? Whatever it is, it holds a large R for Rollo. Behind it you can glimpse a mural for Dunning’s 500th anniversary in 2011.

R for Rollo
Recreation ground inscription
Dunning 500 mural

Finally, a few random shots of this pretty village. I was impressed with the modern extension to the old school building which is a lot more interesting than the boxy structures we get in Glasgow.

Kirk Gate House
Sunflowers
Aye stone
School buildings, old and new
Dunning, Perthshire

We enjoyed our short visit to a village of dragons and witches – not many places can claim both!

Glasgow Gallivanting: August 2020

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter70 Comments
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!

Glasgow Gallivanting: July 2020

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter69 Comments
Strathkelvin Railway Path and Billy the Train

In early July, John took a week off work. This coincided with the time when restrictions on how far you could travel for leisure in Scotland eased slightly, and we ventured into the countryside for the first time since lockdown. Not too far, just over the city boundary to East Dunbartonshire where we discovered a network of trails on and around the old Strathkelvin railway path, several of which we followed. I’ve written a post about that week which will follow shortly, but since then we’ve covered another couple of the trails. The first started in Milton of Campsie where we came across this cute display in the old station.

Billy the Train
Painted stone

The second took us to Lennox Castle. I always thought this had originated as a Victorian “lunatic asylum” but, although the house was built between 1837 and 1841, it didn’t become a hospital until 1936 as a “mental deficiency institution” – such terrible terms to modern ears. The castle itself became the nurses’ home, and patients’ accommodation was built in the grounds: this was demolished after the last parts of the hospital finally closed in 2002, but the castle itself remains as a sad ruin and a reminder of all the suffering souls who lived there.

Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle
Lennox Castle

I did another Twitter walk for the Women’s Library this month, this time in Garnethill, and my fellow volunteer Melody has made a trailer for the same walk. Both are below for anyone interested. On the trailer, my voice is the one that starts by telling you the walk is available to download. It has been great fun doing these, and we hope to do more.

Garnethill Women’s Heritage Walk Trailer from Glasgow Women’s Library on Vimeo.

As lockdown eases, the growth of my collection of photographs of rainbows and teddy bears is diminishing. Indeed, many of the old displays have been taken down. We’ve seen more painted stones this month though, mostly in the small towns in East Dunbartonshire that we visited. People have been very artistic in lockdown!

Torrance bench
Lennoxtown rocks
Lennoxtown rocks
Milton of Campsie stones
Milton of Campsie stones
Milton of Campsie stones
Milton of Campsie stone
Milton of Campsie stone
Milton of Campsie stones
Milton of Campsie rainbow
Glasgow window triptych
Glasgow Harbour bears
Knitted NHS and rainbow

So it’s been a month of easing restrictions with two major events: I’ve had a haircut and a birthday! Unfortunately not in that order. My birthday was the day after restaurants were allowed to re-open, so we had dinner out for the first time in four months. It felt strange and rather lacking in atmosphere, but it’s progress. What will next month bring?

A Glasgow perspective: picture this

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter65 Comments

Johnnie Walker’s Striding Man logo adorns a pub wall in Finnieston. I have a folder full of street art images: this is one which definitely benefits from Becky’s Square Perspectives challenge. Originally there were three men, but the third had an ugly red barrier in front of him. Chopping him off has made his companions much more dynamic so that I almost believe they are about to stride out from the wall.

Here are a few (a lot?) more which work as squares, starting with a couple from the City Centre. Glasgow has its very own panda (by Klingatron) in Gordon Lane, and what looks like the world’s most economical taxi (by Rogue-One) is in nearby Mitchell Street.

Glasgow panda by Klingatron
Rogue One taxi mural
The mural of St Mungo and his robin, by Smug, is on High Street and has featured before, but this is a new perspective. It’s hard to get a good photograph from the road – there are often cars parked in front, and you can’t stand back far enough without being mown down by traffic. I like this image of him taken from the grassy area behind. This was in February – there would be too many leaves on the trees for it to work now.

Details now from two contrasting mosaics in stations. On the left, in Central Station, is part of a mural by professional artist Jude Burkhauser. It dates from 1989 and was commissioned for Glasgow’s reign as European Capital of Culture in 1990. The other tiled mural is from my local station, Hyndland, and runs the full length of the pedestrian tunnel under the platforms. It was designed by local schoolchildren and dates from roughly the same time.

Central Station mural by Jude Burkhauser
Hyndland Station mural by local schoolchildren
Two perspectives on this colourful work on the Forth and Clyde canal at Ruchill which I watched being created last year. In the first, I captured the artist, Sharon Scotland, at work, and in the second John got a nice reflection in the water below.

Artist at work
Canal reflections
Of course, not all murals are commissioned and sanitised. Another pedestrian tunnel, this time under the Expressway at the Riverside Museum, has a changing roster of graffiti art. I like the little chap doing the painting: not so sure about the one at the end.

Negative Destination’s little figures and the Big Heids pop up everywhere, and often disappear very quickly. Here are example from the Kelvin Walkway at Inn Deep and behind Ruchill Church.

Negative destination at Inn Deep
Big Heids at Ruchill
Time offers a different perspective on Mustio by the River Kelvin. The first image is from April 2019, the other is from June this year when both vegetation and supplementary graffiti had increased.

Mustio April 2019
Mustio June 2020
Finally, this was an official mural, named Betty Brown’s Eyes after a local activist in Garnethill who died in 2006. It was vandalised soon after it appeared and has since been painted over. Interestingly, the vandals have left a comment on their own artistic perspective. (Note to self, I might be overusing that word!)

Betty Brown’s Eyes
Betty Brown mural vandalised
This is my last contribution to Becky’s Square Perspectives challenge. I’ve really enjoyed this way of collating some of the many unused pictures of Glasgow still lurking in my files, and may well continue with it at a later date – though without the necessity to make everything square. I might not continue with the musical accompaniment, but today I offer you – what else? – Blondie and Picture This. If you don’t love the luminous Miss Debbie Harry I’m afraid I just don’t know what’s wrong with you.

A Glasgow perspective: sign of the times

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter78 Comments

Looking up and around us more gave us a new perspective on Glasgow during lockdown. One of the things that started to catch my eye was a good sign, and pubs provided several examples. Above is The Aragon on Byres Road – given that this pub was established in a former butcher’s shop in the 1970s, I’m not sure of the significance of the monk but he looks good. A few more pubs below, some from towns just outside Glasgow when we started to roam a bit further.

Lock 27, Anniesland
The Rambler, Torrance
The Sparkle Horse, Partick
The Drookit Dug, Lennoxtown
The Kirky Puffer, Kirkintilloch
Station Bar, Cowcaddens
Station Bar, Cowcaddens

Why does a house in North Kelvinside have a French road sign in front of it? You could hardly smuggle it back in your suitcase …

N21 sign, North Kelvinside
N21 sign, North Kelvinside

I like the juxtaposition of these two black metal signs for the Engine Works in Maryhill and Partick Housing Association. The former was literally an engine works not that long ago – Clark and Buchanan – but has recently been renovated as an events venue. The couple who bought it sank a lot of their own money into it, so I hope their business survives the current problems.

Engine Works, Maryhill
Partick Housing Association

Nae fancy nonsense at GWR restaurant, and an example of the many Chinese language signs in the area around Glasgow University. How many Chinese students will return next year? Who knows …

GWR restaurant
University Parcel

I liked the two cycleway signs at Kelvingrove, and was intrigued by the mini basketball hoop and sign in North Kelvinside. Do the fairies play?

Kelvingrove signs
Mini hoop

Two different kinds of paradise! Paradise is an alternative name for Celtic Park football ground, the huge sign of which can be seen from Glasgow Necropolis. “Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right moment, can be confused with paradise” (Henry Mitchell). We came across this welcoming sign to Woodlands Community Garden on our way home from our one evening out in the last four months.

Celtic Park
Woodlands Community Garden

We loved this two-sided sign for Milton of Campsie Bowling Club.

Milton of Campsie Bowling Club
Milton of Campsie Bowling Club

And finally – I would have more belief that this was a centre of excellence if Terry could actually spell it!

I’m linking to Becky’s SquarePerspectives challenge and, as has become habitual in this series, I’ll play you out with a song. I’d decided on Sign of the times before looking for a video – and they’re all awful! So this is audio only, but you do get to gaze on a still of the very mean and moody looking Mr Bryan Ferry for two minutes or so. I’ll take that.

A Glasgow perspective: animal farm

Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter52 Comments
Bears of Cairnhill Woods

The bears of Cairnhill Woods have made an appearance on this blog before. We paid them another visit during lockdown – and we found some of their friends! Bearsden is a town just outside Glasgow, so their bears, below, are punning. The fishing bear is in a garden about 15 minutes walk from us. I don’t think he’ll be catching much.

Bearsden bears
West End bear

Many children put their teddy bears in windows to create a Bear Hunt for others – those have been well documented in my Glasgow Gallivanting posts throughout the pandemic period. But bears weren’t the only animals we spotted as our repeated walks so close to home gave us a new perspective on our local area by increasing our powers of observation. Alternatively, you could say, it unleashed our inner nosiness – but then, many people were positively inviting us to look into their gardens and windows! Here’s a (large) selection of what we found.

Small mammals

You might spot a couple of inadvertent selfies here. I offer no comment on the aesthetics of these displays.

Cats
Fox
Tyre cat
NHS mice
Dogs
Dog
Dog

Large mammals

A preponderance of lions! The prancing stag is outside a restaurant called – you’ve guessed it – the Prancing Stag. The sculpture shows cartoon character Lobey Dosser, Sheriff of Calton Creek, with the villainous Rank Bajin, riding Lobey’s two-legged horse, Elfie. It’s a Glaswegian thing, but Wikipedia explains it if you really want to know! Finally, you might wonder about the Highland cattle, given that these are all lockdown walks straight from our house – they (13 in all) live in Dawsholm Park which is just over a mile away.

Lobey Dosser
Prancing stag
House lion
House lion
House lion
House lion
Garden lion
Chinese lions
Chinese lion
Highland cow
Highland cattle

Birdlife

The real life birds, apart from the swans, are thanks to John. All images are taken within walking distance, except for the heron and the farm sign which were from after regulations relaxed and we could drive to the countryside to take exercise (although we do have herons on the river and the canal near us – they just don’t pose so nicely very often though).

Mosaic owl
Owl
Owl in June
Cockerel
Parrots
Captive eagle?
Eagle
Farm pheasant
Chooky birdies, Garnethill
Rainy day swans
Gull in flight
Gull in flight
Heron

Mythical creatures

Can I count these as animals? Yes. Yes, I can. Why not?

Mythical creature
Mythical creature
Mythical creature
Mythical creature
Mythical creature
Mythical creature
Mythical creature

Finally, today’s title inspiration is Animal Farm by the Kinks. This world is big and wild and half insane is a great first line and very appropriate today for so many reasons. I have the cats and dogs promised in the lyrics, but sadly not the pigs or goats. Must try harder next time.

Linked to Becky’s SquarePerspectives Challenge.