Glasgow Central Station, Scotland, United Kingdom
Up at 7am this morn as the train was leaving at 8.33am, only an 8min walk to the station. Thoroughly enjoyed the train ride - picking up workers along the way. Arrived Glasgow 9.45am, walking along the platform I suddenly said to Kevin, I remember this place, we forgot we’d changed train in Glasgow on our way to Belfast 4yrs ago.
Asked directions to St George’s square, where the on/off bus left from. Did the usual and stayed on for the duration, this time it was 80mins - well worth it tho, helps no end to orientate oneself to the layout of the city and plan where we want to next stop and go from.
The huge Gothic Cathedral was first up.
Glasow’s history starts with the story of St Mungo (Glasgow’s patron saint) who arrived there from Culross near Fife, and in around 550 AD established the first Catholic Church. It was made of wood and didn’t survive a blaze. In 1136 the first cathedral was consecrated though this bit too burned in a fire, yet people didn’t lose faith and built a new church in 1197. (Glasgow Cathedral)
Based on the Romanesque style, Scottish Gothic architecture was incarnated in this religious core building of Glasgow.
The Cathedral boasts a beautiful rose window, an elegant pointed spire, typical buttresses supporting the thinner walls and large stained glass artwork. It’s also the only church that survived the Reformation of 1560.
It was closed! We along with a few others who had alighted from the on/off bus, were told that it was closed today until Friday as the BBC were filming - I think the choir. But we did get a bonus as we spotted the necropolis in the distance and thought we’d investigate that.
Glasgow Necropolis (a Victorian Cemetry) officially opened in April 1833. Predating the cemetery, the statue of John Knox sitting on a column at the top of the hill, dates from 1825.
It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's Cathedral). Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typically for the period only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3500 monuments exist here.
The cemetery is laid out as an informal park, lacking the formal grid layouts of later cemeteries. This layout is further enhanced by the complex topography. The cemetery's paths meander uphill towards the summit, where many of the larger monuments stand, clustered around the John Knox Monument.
The Glasgow Necropolis was described by James Stevens Curl as "literally a city of the dead". Glasgow native Billy Connolly has said: "Glasgow's a bit like Nashville, Tennessee: it doesn't care much for the living, but it really looks after the dead.
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It was an eyeopener. We have but one similar in the old Te Henui Cemetery - the Abraham Walley Mohammed Salaman tomb. http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/notable_taranaki_identities/topics/show/1250-abraham-walley-mohammed-salaman
We spent sometime walking up (good for the heart rate) and very cautiously down and around the site. Located right next to it, is the massive site where Tennent's Lager is produced. Walked along the boundary with the brewery to the main gates of the necropolis- padlocked!!! We had to walk up and around over the bridge again to get out.
By the way it was a drizzly, misty day, but we rode the open top, up top, wrapped up well and loved it.
Caught the bus again to the Kelvin grove Art Gallery and Museum. Another “fix” of Macintosh and MacDonald for 45mins, didn’t linger long elsewhere, usual museum, and exhibitions. Stuffed animals - you’d hate it Ebs, that’s why I never took pics. Paintings, didn’t even do the upper floor. Funny, we’ve never been ones for museums.
Directly over the road from the art gallery was a pub, Brewdog https://www.brewdog.com/bars/uk/glasgow serving craft beers, we shared a quinoa salad and burger with a flight of 4 beers. Liked the beers, very different.
A walk to meet the bus again, alighted in St George’s square and headed for the Willow Tea Rooms, again a Macintosh creation, it’s not the original but was fun. Coffee and cake before we caught the 5.15pm train back to Largs.
No need to cook tonight, had a coffee and biscuit and now reading (tvs useless, manage to get some news) and it’s only 9pm.
2025-05-22