Bellahouston. Pollokshields. Pollok Park.

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 Bellahouston Park and north west Glasgow, above. Drumchapel, Scotstoun, area, etc.

A phone call from my friend John a while ago saw us arrange a local walk, local to Glasgow that is, meeting over at Bellahouston Park, in separate cars. Rather than go into the park straightaway, as we'd both been in it numerous times we treated it as a hill day...... but bagging local urban Glasgow hills, instead of wilderness summits. Our first hill view was reached via a series of stairs and quiet lanes to gain the short balcony trail on the green rim of Mosspark. The only view you get in Bellahouston Park itself is looking south, towards Pollok Park, Cardonald, and Mosspark but by ascending this extra green hillside you get a better panorama of the park, looking north, with the city behind.

Mosspark boulevard, berthed cruise ships at Braehead/Govan,  Q.E.U Hospital in this one.

 

Bellahouston hi rise blocks with Sherbrooke Parish Church twin spires in view. This is looking over towards Pollokshields, and as John had little interest in Bellahouston Park itself, although we went in and bagged the high point, we lost no time in walking over to Pollokshields as that was another 20 minutes away on green wide pavements then a semi rural path/ cycletrack.

 This is part of it here and it starts from Dumbreck Road at the Haggs Castle Golf Course entrance into Pollok Park. A wide grass strip on the opposite side sandwiched between Pollokshields and the M77 motorway leads down to Dumbreck train station then the path/cycletrack goes past Bellahouston Academy, crosses over into Ibrox and Festival Park in Govan then Bells Bridge over the River Clyde to Partick. It's one small part of a favourite city bike run for me through Glasgow and Paisley so I know it very well but for John it was all new territory so he enjoyed the novelty of a brand new area.

 A distance view of the detached mansions in Pollokshields from a rooftop in Shawbridge Street. Burgh Hall in the foreground, Campsie Fells behind. Glasgow is a city of a hundred low hills and ridges so when the richest Glasgow merchants and upper classes wanted to move out of the polluted inner districts during the mid to late 1800s one of new areas of expansion to the south of the city presented itself. This entire southern quarter had for centuries been the domain of the Stirling- Maxwell family who owned a vast estate stretching from Govan to Barrhead but by the Victorian era had decided to allow selected building on part of it. 

Dumbreck Train Station on Nithsdale Road, where the path/cycletrack comes out then continues along leafy back streets to Ibrox.   The Dumbreck  district is a smaller version of Pollokshields, containing around fifteen quiet upmarket streets in a grid layout. A mini me... and  a flatter, self contained area sealed into its triangular space in modern times by the M77, the M8, and the railway line denoting its  borders.  Pollokshields itself climbs several low ridges and has even grander mansions on show, built during the Victorian and Edwardian era. Around thirty wide grand boulevards flowing in gracious curves or long straight lines, each street sporting rows of detached or semi detached villas surrounded by private gardens. Some are enormous, looking as if they have 20 rooms or more- others are more modest. The same grid layout of around fifteen streets from Leven Street to Mc Culloch Street is comprised of tenements, still in handsome stone, but a definite change of style from the individual private mansions on the ridge. The boundary line between these two contrasting areas- grand mansions vs tenement streets- is Shields Road.

 A ridge-line view of grand mansions in Pollokshields.

One of the grandest is now the four star Sherbrooke Castle Hotel. Reminds me of Edward Scissorhands for some reason- must be the unusual topiary and the hilltop abode. It was originally a private residence built in the 1890s but a hotel since the 1940s.

 Another view of it here. I've been in it during the 1970s for a meal but never been up the tower for the panorama. Due to numerous trees, woods, and grand mansions, Pollokshields, despite its hilltop prominence, is not noted for far reaching views...... at street level anyway. Only in one north facing street did we get partial city wide views. Gower Street being that one... as seen here....

 Charing Cross district. City Centre.

Sky Tower and Yorkhill Hospital ( as was.)

New office buildings under construction in city centre district. This is the nearest I've got to it in over a year.  If I ever get back into it they might be finished by then.

And looking south.  Langside district view from Terregles hilltop. Big Wood area above Castlemilk in distance. (Cathkin Braes.)

BBC HQ with University of Glasgow behind.

Pollokshields Burgh Hall.

Maxwell Park view of same building.

 Carving detail on same building.

  One of several churches in the area... some now used for other purposes.

Sherbrooke and Mosspark Parish Church. (These are the spires glimpsed in the third photo between the hi rise flats.)

 A gargoyle.

It's a walk in itself just wandering round all the various streets in Pollokshields and there is an online heritage trail, highlighting the  grandest houses and who built them. A who's who of famous architects. This is just a few of many.

John was impressed and so was I, even though I've visited this area infrequently since early childhood as I had relatives here ( believe it or not :o) Not living in a grand mansion though! There are smaller, more modest, properties in this area but as inquisitive children exploring it was an unusual playground of sorts and the grandest houses and gardens, naturally enough, intrigued us the most.

Haggs Castle. Built late 1500s so the oldest building in the area by far. Once the ancestral home of the Maxwell family then abandoned when they moved to the nearby Pollok House. After being a Museum of Childhood it's now a private residence again.

At this point we too absconded sunny and warmish Pollokshields for the gloomy and still frozen  pleasures of Pollok Park.

 Frozen swamp and flooded trees.

 

The North Woods- Pollok Park. Until about 15 years ago this was a seldom visited haven of deep woodland and tangled summer undergrowth, a real empty forest yet bang in the middle of a city, where you could easily lose yourself and your sense of direction ... for at least 30 mins... following narrow game trails and grassy dips through the trees. A summer view, below.

 

For decades of visits encountering other folk away from the main set of trails was a rare event and you could cross the entire park alone with a great feeling of solitude and wild nature all around you if you wished to do so. For me it was the best thing about this large, heavily wooded, park  Now sadly, like a lot of places, the deep woods are much busier, even before Covid happened, and heavily crisscrossed by dozens of different, often muddy, mountain bike runs where once it was only birdsong and a few thin game trails snaking through the forest. It was a very busy park when we arrived, even in the deep wood districts, like here, so that feeling of being a lone explorer in a vast and mysterious woodland is totally gone. A shame... but that's progress.

Pollok House in Pollok Park. Built in the 1750s and the new updated home of the Stirling- Maxwell family when fortified drafty tower houses ( the nearby and swiftly abandoned Haggs Castle) fell out of favour in a new safer age when you could splurge out on art, culture, and comfort without the threat of sporadic warfare and canons crashing the doors in.  A good walk over several urban hill tops with plenty of interest  and we were both happy to reach the end and go our separate ways after a fine day out. 10 feet apart all the time of course.