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A view of the Eildon Hills. An attractive and isolated group of three distinctive hills in the Scottish Borders near Melrose. Although only 422 metes, (1385 feet) high this eroded whinstone escarpment stands proud and alone above a rolling softer landscape as it resisted glaciers and ice sheets better. A beautiful range of little hills and a fine day walk in itself on the remains of this ancient volcanic cluster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eildon_Hill Interesting info here.
Alex was after another prize however as we had already climbed the Eildon Hills in the blog and it was the nearby Black Hill, 314 metres, he was after. A perfect day as usual for our visit, almost a month ago now.
A zoom of the highest summit on the Eildons. Black Hill was hard to climb as it was incredibly slippy up and down due to weeks of heavy rainfall, a problem all the UK's hills are facing at the moment with severe erosion and tracks getting damaged or washed away.
A view of Earlston from Black Hill.
This part of the borders is rich and lovely with rolling attractive summits sitting above the curves of the mighty River Tweed. After bagging the hill we did a few tourist things like visiting Scott's View, wandering around the grounds of Dryburgh Abbey and visiting the Leaderfoot Viaduct. All are available within a short distance of each other and worth a visit.
https://www.list.co.uk/article/2742-patrick-macgill-children-of-the-dead-end-1914/
A lovely and very scenic viaduct across the Tweed, which is a real coincidence given that a new eight part drama has just started called "Jericho" about the building of a Victorian viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. I watched the first episode last night in fact. A link above to a classic book written by a man who worked as a navvy on these " building projects" and knew the life first hand.
We also found time to go up Bemersyde Hill, 228 metres, above Scott's View. Panoramas over a huge area from all these hills.
Smailholm Tower, one of the watch towers along the River Tweed valley guarding this fertile and profitable land from intruders in past centuries. Certain parts of the borders have rich farmlands, flocks of plump sheep, and a thriving rural economy, especially in the past when that was more important to a network of separate kingdoms before full international trade and increasing competition took over and diminished any profits in the wool trade.
Many grand houses, country estates and castles dot the landscape in this area.
Ornate metalwork on an old estate archway.
A distant view of the Eildon Hills.
Stow and its old graveyard.
The surprisingly large and grand town hall for such a small community. A beautiful building.
Stow gets ready for its New Year bonfire. Well prepared for a celebration here.
A hilltop folly near the abbey.
The sculpture inside. A nice outing with a lot of variety. My kind of trip. Alex also managed another hill above Stow at 423 metres on the road to Lauder but I stayed in the car for that one and started reading "The Memoirs of Cleopatra." by Margaret George. At 1138 pages it should last me until spring : o)
Years ago Alex, myself and others in the climbing club we were in at that time always fancied a trip to Lundy, a remote and beautiful island in the Bristol Channel and a special looking route in "Classic Rock" called The Devil's Slide. We did get down to Cornwall and Devon climbing and ticking off many rock routes but Lundy, for various reasons, always evaded us. This excellent HD video is the next best thing to actually being there in person as I doubt we will get there now. We never did finish them all as they were scattered all over the UK and we didn't have that many holidays... or time... or money...but it was great fun trying. A list too far which competed for many years with bagging the Scottish Munros...bothy tours and other interests. http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=8 This list brings back some memories as we did manage a good chunk of them with not that many left as we climbed many other rock climbs as well in every area not on the list. Happy days of youth.
Worth watching full screen even if you don't rock climb for the fantastic scenery. I've been to Ilfracombe and Bideford with "Sarah"" a few times over the years as well before I knew this route even existed or I took up climbing. At least I could have bagged Lundy- the island. So near yet so far. Wah!!!
An added extra song written as a tribute about the workers that built the power stations, motorways, tunnels, canals and hydro dams of the UK.
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As a keen amateur photographer towns and cities provide a wealth of good locations for photographic subject matter. This is a bridge across the river with some deliberate slight camera movements to create an arty effect of the Christmas lights in Paisley.
One of a hungry lone swan patrolling the White Cart Water in cold December. Paisley at Christmas.
The Clutha Wall Mural. Left to right faces who have frequented this famous Glasgow pub and live music venue in the past. No problems recognizing Spike Milligan, Billy Connolly,Gerry Rafferty, Alex Harvey, Frank Zappa, Jimmy Reid, John Martyn, (had to look up a young Glenda Jackson and Rupert Everett )but also recognized David Hayman ( The Citizens Theatre is not far away in the Gorbals district, hence the actor visits.
There is a good one of silent film star Stan Laurel who grew up in Glasgow and performed around the corner in music halls before finding fame in America, and Glasgow boxer Benny Lynch, World flyweight champion in the 1930s, but as it was just after the reopening of part of the pub ( A police helicopter crashed through the roof with 10 folk killed inside and many more injured in Nov 2013) as I passed it on my bike and too many folk were sitting outside at tables to capture that front side of the mural properly. http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=19649&
With most towns and inner cities these days struggling to compete with out of town shopping centers and retail parks for footfall, Glasgow in recent years has seen a rise in City Centre murals, presumably to try to attract more folk into the centre. I must admit I never visit the centre of Glasgow these days for shopping purposes and haven't done for over 20/30 years now. For a start it costs money to visit by public transport or by car and my local shopping mall has everything nearby I need under one roof as I don't spend much cash except on petrol and food. Can't see that situation changing UK wide anytime soon as traditional high streets get left behind but I might be tempted in for the mural walk. Good link above of the mural walk and murals list.
I like the idea of living in a large city though... most of the time. One thing about cities and towns I like is that they are constantly changing and reinventing themselves...to keep pace with our increasingly frantic lifestyles presumably. If you leave for 10 years you notice a big difference. Even if you stay in one city or large town all your life you are still surprised by new buildings and entire districts transforming... almost overnight it seems. Part of Glasgow City seen from the surrounding woodlands.
In the last year just passed, I realized large parts of Glasgow had altered or were altering considerably, yet again, so it was a good excuse to do half a dozen bike rides in the glorious autumn months of fine weather to reacquaint myself with my ever shifting metropolis. I gave up knowing London intimately a long time ago. Too vast in size and too far away to keep track of district by district, let alone street by street but the Greater Glasgow area is manageable to keep track of every couple of years at under 2 million people.( a population including the surrounding towns like Paisley, Clydebank, Motherwell, Hamilton etc)
The Great Wall. Glasgow.2015.
So in fine weather I headed off with a strong sense of purpose which is all you really need in life to feel happy and fulfilled. I've found people in general tend to be obsessive and that they like collecting things. Money, Possessions, Games, Mountains, Fashion, Stamps, Cars... the list is endless. Although I don't consider I have a strong addictive streak in me, addictions have been my greatest pleasure and reward. Some are harmless, others less so...I used to collect bird's eggs in the 1960s, then interesting people, munros, bothies, islands, books, films....
Addictions or fashions can sweep the world and take many shapes and forms. Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect and town planner who had a vision of the future as hi rise cities in the sky. Many towns and cities worldwide copied this dream with their own models and Glasgow was not alone in building dozens of high rise tower blocks in the 1960s. Many of these Leviathans of the modern age are now being dismantled as tastes change and families are no longer prepared to live in them. Fine for couples or single folk... not so good for humans bringing up young children with hi- rise corridors often their main playground for many years.
A 22 floor block is slowly demolished floor by floor. It used to be abandoned castles that littered the landscape as tastes and society moved on without them.
Almost looks like a 20th century castle in this shot framed by trees.
Years ago almost every council estate in Glasgow and elsewhere looked like this. In the 1970s and 1980s you could tell how rough a scheme was just by its graffiti levels alone and where it was placed on buildings.
Growing up in one of the "Big Four" I almost viewed this wall as a long lost friend seeing it. A nostalgic part of my childhood as much as anything else as graffiti was a common sight everywhere in my daily life back then. With the growth of the internet this form of "selfie" or visual self expression during teenage years is almost a relic as well in modern Glasgow.You rarely see it these days. I'm sure more than a few street artists started out with unsolicited work on gable ends and walls where they grew up, if only to practice their talent and gain recognition.
Toryglen is an area of the city I don't have any reason to visit normally but I had heard it was also undergoing changes so headed the bike in that direction.
The Prospecthill Circus flats are all that remain of this once people busy area situated in the south central district of the city. The rest is a wasteland of cleared ground where tenements and deck access type flats used to stand until recently. As with other areas I've observed, private housing has moved in and built new low level homes but with a fraction of the housing stock and accommodation that used to stand here.
Not for the first time did I find myself thinking... where do all the people go? They can't all be committing suicide or ending up in heaven wandering around stoned at the gates via legal highs so where do the rest end up? Do they go abroad? All over Glasgow formally large council estates containing thousands of people have been cleared then replaced with housing association low level new build, either for sale or rent. But only for a select few it seems.
It may be just the way modern house designs have improved social housing visually but it also appears as if some subtle form of "social cleansing" is going on here as well.
During my numerous bike rides across the city in 2015 I passed area after area of formally unemployed / lower working class districts that have been transformed into almost posh areas. I may be completely wrong here but that was my surface impression anyway cycling around. Districts where packed thousands once lived replaced by a few hundred, admittedly nice, well spaced out homes.
New housing stock in Dalmarnock. Formally an area of small works, industrial estates and a maze of streets made up of distinctive red sandstone tenements. Maybe these are just the 2015 version of tenements but they appeared fairly posh to me and not really on the menu for ordinary Glasgow citizens unless they are making good money somewhere.
This is part of the Commonwealth Games village, now available for sale and rent.
As far as I am aware Glasgow has not built a single large new council estate since the 1970s. Many formally densely packed areas are spacious feeling and open plan for the first time in 100 years. The remaining large council estates have halved in size as has the city population itself. Where do they all go? The shrinking city!
Maybe that's why we now have one massive hospital to replace four old ones. The cheekily named "Death Star" has a helicopter pad on the roof and is the biggest hospital complex in Scotland but you can see immediately why it is a fitting nickname when you walk under its towering walls. A colossus in every way and very easy for even a storm-trooper to get lost in with state of the art automatic lifts and corridors cleaned by robotic sweepers. Nothing to do with the medical care inside, just a playful nod to the size of it being out of this world.
So where are we heading in the future? My attention was drawn to this short You Tube video discovered by my old pal Alistair and it would be funny if it wasn't so painfully truthful.
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During the long golden autumn just passed and an unexpected but welcome month of good dry weather and sunny days in October... or thereabouts I had time off to go a few cycle rides. This is a gallery from a circular tour around Clydebank, Glasgow, Renfrew and Paisley that took in a pleasant easy few hours. Rubber fenders ready to be used on a large boat. River Clyde near Partick.
Also popped into Intu, formally Xscape, just for a look, which has a climbing wall, indoor snow slopes and loads of food and coffee shops. Many more food outlets than when I remember being on the wall in here years ago, both here and at nearby Braehead, which must now have a food, drink or entertainment outlet to match the number of actual retail shops inside. Over the decades shopping malls seem to be focused around eating and drinking as much as actual shopping these days. Given the sheer variety of fast food outlets on offer within every large shopping mall, (usually conveniently located next to a children's play area and seating. Trap the kids first; then get Mum and purse second. ) it's no surprise the UK has an obesity crisis. Spending a day shopping has never been to my tastes apart from a swift in and out occasionally to get something I really want but many of them like Braehead or close rival Silverburn in Pollok aim for a full family day out with access to cinemas, swings and other fairground style rides, food and drink, plus retail shopping all under one roof. Presumably, due to discount retailers undercutting and taking profits in conventional domestic sales of lower priced clothes, food and drink in the current climate.
As mentioned in my Glasgow and Firth of Clyde Guide books: Blah, blah.... and Blah, blah, blah, Part Two, a flat cycle track/ walkway runs from the Renfrew Ferry past Braehead out towards King George V Dock. This is the track and makes a pleasant stroll along the riverbank on foot or it can be extended as you can also walk the other way, downriver past the Renfrew Ferry on a similar but less popular track to the mouth of the Black Cart Water and panoramic views over a water based kingdom with the Clyde looking wide, wild and mysterious from this vantage point. A little modern park sits within Renfrew, just upstream from the ferry, down beside the river, called Clyde View Park.
Although small what makes this park special is it's design,with a man made river system running slowly through it with deep pools, jets and water features, reed beds and statues. For its size it packs a lot in and is a favourite of mine.
The reedy river.
Another deep pool.
A sculpture. Presumably the draftsmen that created the great ships on paper before a single rivet or metal plate stood upright.
A back elevation of this sculpture. Shipyards on the Glasgow (Scostoun) side.
View from Renfrew of Yoker and Clydebank.
Renfrew Town Hall.
Back view of the town hall tower. Just like the one in Disney land.
A view of Barclay Curle Crane on the river.
Amazing display of large golden flowers.
Robertson Park. Renfrew. Perfumed rose beds in full bloom. I also like to link up any parks and green spaces on an urban bike run or walk just for greater interest.
Park entrance. Another nice, slightly larger park.
I then paid a visit to Paisley's oldest park which contains a couple of notable monuments. This is the Robert Burns Statue.
Which is somewhat overshadowed by an even greater monument and one that has been fully restored after lying in ruins for years. "The Fountain of the Ocean" depicts the exotic wonders that the sailing ships must have brought back tales about onshore to astonish and delight landlubbers. Huge sea creatures armed with ivory daggers, large sea crocodiles swimming far from shore, swift strange birds and great white bears from the north. It still is a remarkable fountain today but in its prime it would have been astonishing to see these semi mythical creatures full size and in vivid colour in a water filled basin.
The complete fountain.
The story of its birth and eventual restoration. "Life needs some wonder in it to be worth living."
I haven't felt Christmas at all this year until one moment. Normally I don't bother that much with Christmas until the last minute as I have that luxury, present wise, but the place I've been all month that feels the most like Christmas is definitely this town, above. Paisley. It didn't really inspire Christmas thoughts making up parcels or sending cards away as that was going through a set list.... it happened wandering round Paisley on an icy Sunday night just as the lights came on then completing the town trail in the dark, up and over the brae to the Coat's Observatory. That's when Christmas arrived for me. That special moment of sparkle to round off a great short walk.
As I lived a bus ride away, growing up, I used to come through here often and was always impressed by the range of Christmas lights and the unique features within this large town. For a start the White Cart Water pours through and over these falls before disappearing right under the town centre via a dark tunnel. In flood or when iced up these falls are impressive and set the backdrop to the mills, the Abbey and the massive Town Hall. Paisley has a long proud history and you can really get a feel of that wandering around the place with its ancient buildings, unfamiliar statues to Renfrewshire heroes, ( a certain William Wallace, among others) and spacious pedestrian areas. Free parking at weekends is available beside the falls and around the Abbey district. Well worth a visit and great for children.
You may have noticed I have taken to stamping my photos. Both Alex and myself have had several photos taken recently and passed off on other blogs as that author's own work so reluctantly I'm going to stamp mine from now on. As it's Christmas I might as well promote something and have fun with it as well. It's early days yet but future photos will have very discreet stamping, sometimes invisible to most viewers.
Paisley's lights are a wonder as they form several different groups, well spread out from each other along the river bank.
Some actually made me laugh and that is when the spirit of Christmas arrived inside me. Free parking, no presents to buy, a lovely Dickens themed walk around an ancient series of buildings and better than expected lighting effects. For years Glasgow's Christmas lights in George Square have been somewhat overshadowed and modernized by space sharing money spinners like an ice rink, flashing fairground rides and food stalls parked around them.
Here, in Paisley, there is a pleasing purity involved. Nothing else going on other than traditional style lights in a fantastic setting and families taking young children around the river front area to see them.
The three wise men. (The code just says "and a happy new year.")
The main street. Paisley.
Paisley Town Hall.
View across the river.
Santa in town.
Lights across the river.
Christmas Tree on Main Street.
Paisley Shopping District at night. Best time to visit for walking is between 3:30 and 6:30pm. Better to find a parking spot in daylight then wander round as the lights come on. £1 for 2 hours Mon to Fri. Sat Sun Free parking.
