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A more straightforward ordinary title for this post would be Knightswood Cross (seen above) Dawsholm Park. Vet Centre, West of Scotland Science Park, Carinhill Woods,Westerton, Forth and Clyde Canal but that would be stripping it of any wonder and magic- just a boring list of places visited. And this walk... on this particular day... was nothing like that at all.
It started out fairly flat... in mood I mean.. with a walk around Dawsholm Park. This is a nice enough middle sized city park with a large south and west facing grass slope. It's quite a dark park usually as it's packed with mature large trees in the main and the only good distance views from it are from this open aspect meadow, looking over Anniesland, Knightswood, towards the hazy, on this day, Brownside Braes near Paisley. As you can see new trees have been planted here, and although I should be happy to see new trees growing anywhere this is the best open meadow in the entire park with the best distance views, which in 10 to 15 years time will disappear altogether if these saplings take over. Mind you I'll be past caring by that time. It's also where local families take their children to slide down this hill every winter when the snow arrives as it's steeper than it looks in the photo.
Another view from the same Dawsholm Park sloping meadows that might well be covered up by trees for future visitors. I noticed a couple of years ago this also happened to another brilliant extensive viewpoint on the other side of Glasgow, widespread new tree planting covering nearly all of a bare grass slope that I'd only just discovered not far from King's Park and easily linked together to make a fine city walk. It turned out to be the old defunct King's Park Golf Course and I thoroughly enjoyed finding it and its stunning new views over the city. I went back a few years later after that initial discovery and was disgusted to find it new tree covered, 12 foot saplings already blocking the view and changing the whole wide open aspect of the place entirely. I really enjoy walking through woods, love trees, and with winter storms increasing in strength and toppling old ones we need new regeneration... but hopefully in well thought out locations. Not blocking long established views.
Ostensibly, I was in Dawsholm Park to see if I could find green parakeets. I spotted them here in the winter months with bare trees and snow on the ground, when I took this photo. Either they have moved location, been captured, or were just higher up in the trees feeding on buds and hidden from sight but I failed to spot them this time. It was just an excuse to motivate me into going outdoors anyway as I'm not one of these people that have a metronome setting inside... i.e... out every day for a set number of steps...no matter the weather... rain or shine... like a predictable clockwork toy. I'm much more of a grail quest sort of person. I usually need an end goal to focus on...or something different to inspire me.
Once I.m motivated I'll easily do 10,000 steps without even noticing or counting them.... 20,000 or 30,000 to reach that distant golden hilltop... or whatever else it is that captures and holds my attention. I like colour, pristine blue cloudless skies above , and lush vibrant scenery around me. I'm a hedonist in the real sense of the word. Simple, mostly free, pleasures available to anyone- that never jade. Weather is not there to be tolerated or put up with but fully enjoyed. Fifteen years now since I've spent a day in dismal weather outdoors (in my free time) with a rain jacket on, except for an occasional shower between sunlit skies. Dawsholm Park I've visited dozens of times over the years so there was nothing new or unexpected there, and it was mainly green throughout... so my general mood was still flat and totally uninspired.
And then.. all of a sudden... it happened... Serendipity slipped her hand in mine and took me to her magical realm... as she has so often since childhood. I entered a world of colour and magic. The wild River Kelvin above and my winning photograph of the week.
On an OS or Google map however I simply walked up the Switchback from Dawsholm Park then passed through a black pedestrian gate into what used to be the grounds of the old Garscube Estate. A grand multi roomed high turreted mansion house used to stand here on this lawn beside the River Kelvin ( demolished 1950s so now long gone, and almost completely forgotten) but you can still see a photo of it in this link, below.
https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSD00265
I've only been here once and didn't explore properly as time was cut short. I came back a year or so later, several times, and either the gate was shut or there was a sign up saying general public not allowed access ( although you can access it from the Maryhill Acre Road side, this is slightly inconvenient for me over at Anniesland on foot, meaning two buses or cycling round a good distance to get to that far side to start the walk.)
Anyway, the main point was this was a real novelty for me. A landscape in Glasgow, the size of a large city park, I'd never properly explored. That alone was a genuine miracle.
Miracle number two was a mid April visit, timed to perfection, by complete accident, to see this landscape at it's finest. In late Spring..... wandering along the network of paths that start just past the gate entrance and continue around the Vet Centre to eventually reach the river sitting in the shallow gorge below.
A path to really savour and move along at a snails pace, every remarkable inch stuffed full of scents and colour everywhere. ( I was thinking of visiting Glasgow's Botanic Gardens when leaving the house but I'm glad I did not and arrived here instead as I went there a week after this trip and it was just green, hardly any main decorative border flowers out at all yet.)
By contrast the Garscube Estate grounds glowed with life and colour, birdsong, buzzing insects and wafting fragrance. Serendipity and I, like Adam and Eve, were entranced by our surroundings. I was completely alone, of course, on this trip... but it did not feel like that at all... entering nirvana is very addictive.... and comforting.
The estate now is owned by the University of Glasgow. Kelvin Campus.... with various low buildings dotted around this sculpted parkland setting but this just gives it added interest and appeal- like some 1960s utopian rolling suburbia of the very best kind, especially on a Wedgwood blue day like today. This is my religion.
Happy! And euphoric! In my own spectacular outdoor church once again!
In a sun drenched wonderland I've never walked through before.
And as I say it was fairly extensive.
Mallard Ducks on the river.
Stone bridge over the River Kelvin, part of the original old estate, along with the now gone mansion house. Although I grew up in a council housing estate I also grew up, at the same time, in a grand estate like this one as Pollok was and still is one vast Capability Brown style sculptured landscape originally, many times larger than this one yet five minutes walk from my old doorstep. No wonder I had a happy childhood there... exploring substantial ruins, several castles, old buildings reclaimed by nature, and a water-world style theme park, only one without any tourists in it... all courtesy of Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots, among others.
Close up of bridge over the River Kelvin. The sight of numerous local dog walkers and a few sunbathing couples on the banks assured me it was no longer restricted to staff that worked there so I had free access to explore. ( I have cycled through the woods running parallel to Maryhill Road when using the higher River Kelvin pathway along the river bank from Acre to Balmore Road then returned through Maryhill Park and that eastern end of Dawsholm Park. Also a good walk or cycle.) but the rest of this estate was new territory.
So good to get somewhere I've not been before.
a group of white daffodils.
Beautiful mature woodland yet also wide meadows and extensive views. A winning combination.
Period stairs and lawns still left in place around the old Garscube House estate.
A yellow poppy tree. That's what I'm calling it anyway. Cos in wonderland you do not need to know the name of everything... it just is... amazing and instant gratification. Later on I might look it up.
A happy man wandered back in a daze.
I had been to a magical place I had not walked through before...
Wonderful things had occurred... I never expected to see...
And that was enough...
Thanks to Serendipity I had found my grail quest, reached my golden hilltop... and that was enough.
Like any quest I still had a long weary road back to travel to the house but it was made shorter by the memory of riches you cannot hold in your hands. Riches and gemstones of the mind.
Over drumlin ridge crest, shadowed dell, and turquoise river valley this old knight stumbled on-wards....
until at last a golden path beckoned... Westerton Train Station. Bearsden.
pointing me homewards... Forth and Clyde canal. Yellow Marsh Marigolds leading the way.
The sheer beauty of tulips and a house and garden waiting for me. Thank you Serendipity. You saved me again... like so many times before.
A colourful post deserves an equally colourful meal. So the weary but happy green knight sits down to a dinner of fresh asparagus, pork,fried potatoes, egg and cherry tomatoes. Yum yum. A travellers meal.
6 comments:
You keep telling us you're poor but you eat asparagus! I can't afford asparagus!
Garscube Estate looks really nice. What on earth is that creature on a log in the pond? Looks like either a turtle or a terrapin and I didn't think either was native to Britain?
The ring-necked green parakeets have become a very successful invasive species up and down the country, but I have never actually come across one myself.
Your "wonderland yellow poppy tree" is actually a Cornus dogwood tree.
It's more a matter of personal choice Carol. I would grudge and could not afford... at the moment... to spend £20 on petrol just to get to the coast or up a mountain I've climbed before but I'm happy to spend a pound for a bunch of asparagus as an occasional treat... or an avocado... or a rock melon... or a sharon fruit... or a bag of six kiwi fruits... as I can afford that now and again. I can afford it as I rarely put the heating on so I save loads of money that way.
It is a red eared terrapin the size of a dinner plate I spotted in a city park. Unfortunately it eats everything else in that pond including baby ducks, fish, mice, newts, frogs, tadpoles etc. Luckily cold winters kill them off but with climate change they might survive. London parks have a real problem with them as people keep releasing them into ponds, not realizing they will kill and eat everything else once they grow bigger.
Hi Rosemary,
I thought you would know what the bush/tree was. If I've seen it before in that colour anywhere else I don't remember it although I do remember that name so I must have looked it up for something on the blog years ago. My hour glass memory has as much chance of retaining facts these days, past a few weeks, than sand trickling steadily through the real thing.
I like Garscube. I remember thinking Dawsholm was quite dank, bit it’s improved a lot lately. The highland cattle are interesting when they are about, Both regular lockdown trips for us.
Hi Anabel,
When I was more widely travelled and bagging hills I always assumed the vet school entrance was out of bounds and didn't think too much about it then I bought a new hand sized book of Glasgow walks and the only one I hadn't done was a straight line through the Garscube House area to Maryhill Park which I did. I went back on a different occasion a short while later to explore further and a sign was up saying public access not allowed, maybe because of that book and too many casual walkers visiting the grounds, ... but no sign this time. Obviously, as you know, the other side of the estate at Acre Road is wide open to anyone as it's a tarmac road with no gates to shut up. I'm normally cycling on a bike if I get that far.
Quite glad I only discovered it in recent years as finding a new area like that is a rare event these days. Dawsholm feels a bit more open now thanks to a decades worth of storms clearing out some of the mature trees. There's only one other deciduous park I can think of that's deeper and danker that Dawsholm and that's Dalzell Park in Motherwell, also because of a super abundance of trees in a relatively small area, including loads of junipers and other evergreen pines mixed in. A real creepy forest vibe where you look over your shoulder a lot. Dark even on a sunny day although the neighbouring Baron's Haugh Nature Reserve is wide open and nice..
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