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The great wood of Pollok. It was while we were on the 22 bus from Braehead to Silverburn to do the walk mentioned in the previous post (Arden, Darnley) that we passed Rosshall Park and I discovered that Alan had not been in it. This suggested another walk so the next week we took the same 22 bus from Braehead to Silverburn shopping centre but got off it on Crookston Road at the gates to Rosshall Park.
Rosshall Park entrance gates. This is a small park but it packs a lot into it. Over many decades I've cycled and walked through it so I know it fairly well.
Rosshall House and Park info. It's been around since the Mid to late 1800s and was once a private estate. Rosshall Hospital is close by as is Leverndale Hospital.
It's usually a nice quiet park, not a busy one. Monkey puzzle tree showing it's vicious spikes and thorns. A tree type that's been around since the dinosaurs and largely unchanged since then so who knows what it needed this level of protection from. Certainly not monkeys but they would find it equally hard to ascend.
For a small park it has everything. Mature trees and atmospheric vistas. As it was May the wild garlic covered the woodland floor, giving off a pungent scent.
Like all the Glasgow Parks since the covid lockdowns it looks slightly overgrown in places, and neglected, but nature can handle that lack of maintenance, for a few years at least. Before brambles and other land left lying plant specialists take over.
The meadow section with a yellow disc basket. This is a Frisbee type game I've only seen in one other park. Ruchill Park. Skimmed accurately the disc should hit the chains and be captured by the basket.
The pond.
Lush vegetation at this time of year. I had a mental image of snapping turtles basking on a log here. It just had that kind of vibe.
The highlight/oddity in this park is the grotto. An artificially created small labyrinth of stone blocks, swampy puddles, and trees but with a path twisting through it. I have seen this in every state of neglect since the 1960s, most barren looking in the winter months, but in May, with thick vegetation, it looked every inch the ancient jungle ruin.
A cave lies at its heart. Not that many folk come in here so it is secluded.
Not far away and a 15 minute walk further on through the back end of Rosshall Park lies Pollok and Crookston Wood. On the left ( red roofs) is the local Lyoncross Road row of shops in Pollok. On the right is Crookston Wood and this is the direction we entered it from. Lyoncross Road halfway down. A path here leads up into the woods then out the other end onto Dormanside Road.
I've always thought of it as a dark wood but not on this occasion. Not only Crookston Wood, seen above, but the surrounding grassy meadows along Linthaugh Road in Pollok offers visitors around a million bluebells every May. It was spectacular... but gone now for another year.
No wonder I love May. Although this particular wood has unpleasant memories for me.
Even as a youngster I liked exploring new places but this wanderlust didn't always go down well in rival territory so my luck ran out and I was stabbed here. Even today it's not a wood that feels friendly. A few male local dog-walkers and that's it. Back in the late 1960s however it was surrounded by flat roofed tenements similar to Priesthill in the last post and I got caught trespassing and paid the price. Luckily no major arteries got pierced and Leverndale and it's calm nurses worked not far away. I think he was aiming for my balls but got my groin/ upper thigh instead as I was a moving target.
At that time a large water tower (gone now) stood in the centre of this wood used as a hangout by the local gangs but I didn't know that as it was my first time here so was caught unawares. It was not the 'summer of love' for me in 1969.
An incident I mentioned in the first and last chapter of my book Autohighography as it's not the sort of thing you forget. This was a solo bike trip over ten years ago when the water tower was still standing.
Even now it is not a wood to enter lightly. Although the general surrounding area is much improved. No 1950s tenement clusters exist nowadays. Although some lone tenements in better condition still remain in the district.
We then arrived at Croc's Castle ( Croc's town) or Crookston Castle nowadays and this is worth a visit for able bodied people. It stands on a small hill in the middle of Pollok and is open in the summer months. Toilets beside the entrance cottage. It was free to get in. One of the oldest buildings in Glasgow dated 1400s. Free parking in the surrounding streets but to make a day of it use buses and add in extras like this walk.
Although a ruin it's one of my favourites as three vertical interior ladders lead onto the roof giving magnificent views over the surrounding area.
Main info board. Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots might have been in this area during their courtship. They certainly gave their names to many places locally in Glasgow. Like Darnley (he did own an estate here) The Darnley Tree ( an ancient large sycamore) and Queen's Park.
And most of this view is one of trees. Pollok is truly amazing for displaying wild nature within a city environment. Neilston Pad here in the distance. A woodland realm stretching to the far horizon.
And from the roof we could see our route ahead. The dotted line. Up through Leverndale, more woods and open land, then eventually Paisley, where we would get a bus back. 26 bus every 15 minutes from Paisley city centre to Glasgow city centre. This bus also runs past Braehead.
The entrance path up to the castle.
Leverndale came next. A mental health hospital, once an asylum, but now some of it is private homes.
And the iconic tower, seen from miles around. Also on a hilltop. A couple of hours pleasant walk when linked with Rosshall Park and Crookston Castle.
We carried on however, passing more bluebells, to take a tarmac path from the tower along the White Cart Water ( you can include this as well on that shorter walk, looping back towards Rosshall Park.)
We kept going however as our end was in Paisley, White Cart Water path, above.
Ornate cycle gate near Hawkhead. Still on our tarmac path.
Art Deco buildings at Hawkhead.
Modern housing. Good colour makes all the difference.
Approaching the town of Paisley. Once one of the richest towns in Scotland and the UK with a textile and thread empire that spanned the globe. Cotton, textile, and thread mill equipment plus Paisley HQ expertise got exported worldwide to set up satellite factories in numerous countries from the 1800s to the early 1970s when it became cheaper to make it in factories abroad with lower labour costs. Paisley still has many grand period buildings from that time. A fitting end to a magnificent walk. 3 to 4 hours duration walking. Add another hour for buses.
11 comments:
I’ve only once that I can remember seen people playing the frisbee game in Ruchill. That’s awful that you got stabbed. These days, given recent news stories, you might not have got off so lightly.
Hi Anabel, Yes I don't think it's played that often although with the rain we get the area around the Ruchill baskets was very muddy last time I passed. It's also maybe hard to score a basket, looking at it, but that's just a guess. I used to like pitch and putt areas in parks rather than proper golf but they are discouraging that in most parks nowadays. Letting grasslands grow long. Kids carrying weapons/blades in the 1960s and 1970s was par for the course back then in all the council estates. Main difference is knives were smaller and thinner then, like you say, unlike the massive zombie blades they have now.
That Frisbee game is called Frisbee golf here, maybe they don't want to call it that there? And the monkey puzzle tree, I have heard of it in England but never saw one. It is naturalized in the UK but was brought there from South America in the 19th century. Isn't that something? So many seed collectors went to the Americas, Australia and Asia!
Oh, and I meant to say, no matter how long ago it was, I would avoid any park where I had been stabbed! Gee, that must have been a very scary thing. Glad you came out okay but still.
Beautiful photos! Thank you so much for sharing this lovely tour!
That's terrible about the stabbing! It was never that rough rurally in the 60s and 70s that you'd get stabbed - you might get thumped or maybe your 'head kicked in' but never stabbed in the rural areas of Yorkshire! I don't remember reading about that in Autohighography?
I'm surprised in theses days of "Elf'n'Safety" that you're allowed to go up internal ladders to rooves in castles! I'd definitely be up for a visit to that castle...
I wonder if monkey puzzle trees mainly had those sharp leaves and trunks to discourage grazing as much as climbing? much like hollies do. If you notice, hollies in non-grazing areas often don't have prickly leaves and that is why...
Hi Kay. I think it's called disc golf now here but it's a while since I looked it up. Monkey puzzle trees I always associate with grandeur due to the fact you only find them here outside large houses, or often, as in this case, at the entrance to Victorian parks. Native to Chile but they are getting scare there. Most I've ever seen here together in one place was ten. In a Greenock park.
Thank you Linda.
Hi Carol, Yes, it's in the first chapter and the last. 'On bus rides around the area... then something about wandering into a wood... and hard lessons learned.' I was deliberately vague in the first chapter to avoid stereotypes. Glasgow= gangs, knife crime, drunks, kilts, haggis, bagpipes etc as I wanted it to be about relationships, travels with friends, and the outdoors and that might have overshadowed that. (But I did reveal what occurred in the last chapter.) Just like I had one single observational line about breasts and that one line was the only thing in a 500 page book that most people in my hill-walking club picked up on :o). Bugger all about the rest of the book.... if it was good or bad. Nothing. Just the breast line comment . I'm probably cancelled now!
Thanks for this excellent blog, I'll try this walk. I'm in Penilee and always on the lookout for interesting routes nearby.
Hi Luke. It is good but I'd miss out Crookston Wood as the bluebells are past now and the water tower is gone. Everything else is really enjoyable especially the ladder climb to the roof of Crookston Castle and the views. Pick any dry day and best of luck. The Braehead to Silverburn bus mentioned runs right through Penilee. Also a handy bus for the other two Pollok walks.
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