Glasgow — Our Next Big Thing

17 to 22 July 2024

Wednesday was a day for modern marvels, after crossing the Firth of Forth bridge, leaving Edinburgh, Julie and Anthony visited the Kelpies in Falkirk, a modern artistic marvel.

Julie bought all things Kelpie.

A short drive from the Kelpies sits an engineering marvel, the Falkirk Wheel. The Falkirk wheel replaced 11 locks, connecting the Forth and Clyde canal with the Union canal. The volume of water in each of the two carriages is so well balanced that it only takes 1.5 killowatt-hours (about the same as boiling 8 kettles of water) of electricity for one rotation. The Wheel opened in 2002, and is ~80 ft tall.

Long boat in the lock leading up to the Wheel.

We were happy to meet two big fluffy Cats, Bandit and Bronco, and two energetic dogs, Ginny dog and Molly, at our Air B n B in Glasgow. Bandit was not shy about snuggling up with us and watching TV.

Disclaimer: Names of humans and animals may have been changed because we were a month behind and Anthony and Julie’s memories for proper nouns are failing at this point. Sorry for any errors.

Bandit

Ginny Dog

Doune Castle - Imagine a wooden rabbit hurling over the battlements.

On Thursday, Julie and Anthony caught a van for an Outlander Tour. Anthony was a little uncomfortable, being the only male on the tour (besides the tour guide/bus driver). Despite this, he did enjoy the tour. Spoiler alert, lots of references to the Outlander TV show follow.

The first stop was Doune Castle, in Stirling, which you may recognize from TV Shows and Movies.

Castle Doune stood in for Castle Leoch, home of Clan McKenzie in the TV show Outlander.

Castle Anthrax location from MP's Holy Grail

Doune castle was used to depict Winterfell in the pilot episode of the TV show Game of Thrones.

John Cleese, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”

Most significantly, this castle was the location for (almost) all of the castles in the 1975 movie Monty Python’s Holy Grail. One of the Pythons, Terry Jones, narrated the audio tour for the castle.

So was it Jaime? His ghost? or something else?

Next stop was the town of Falkland in County Fife. Falkland was Inverness, in the 1940s, from the first season of Outlander. Above was where Frank bumped into a mysterious man with a thick Scottish brogue, who was watching Frank’s wife, Clare in the window.

Scenes from the road

The tour took us back toward Edinburgh, you may recognize the Firth of Forth bridge.

No Outlander pilgrimage would be complete without a trip to Lallybroch, home of Clan Frazier.

Midhope Castle is a ruin, while the facade is intact, inside is an empty shell. There is a plan to turn the castle into a hotel.

Next stop is Blackness Castle, which sits on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. This Castle was Fort William from Outlander Season 1 and 2. This is the location of Jaime’s heroic rescue of Claire. It is also the location of that infamous encounter between Black Jack Randall and Jaime (IYKYK).

We were lucky to have Fergus, as our tour guide for the castle. He was decked out in traditional Scottish garb. Fergus provided the details of the shooting in the castle, complete with continuity issues.

The town of Culrose was used as the fictional town of Cranesmuir in Outlander. Claire meets Geillis Duncan and is accused of being a witch. Jaime shows up and rescues Claire, apparently there is spanking involved (not the sexy kind).

Sam, our driver and guide, was also an extra in Outlander. Sam shared behind the scenes stories of filming the show. Here he is standing where the mob dragged Claire and Geillis to be burnt at the stake.

Sam also told stories of his hometown, Cumbernauld. Cumbernauld is the location of Wardpark TV and Film studios where Outlander is filmed. Cumbernauld was built to be the town of the future in the 1955. Unfortunately, what was efficient, modern and cool in 1955 has become industrial and depressing today. According to Sam, the Film studios are leading to a resurgence of Cumbernauld. We didn’t go to Cumbernauld so there are no photos here.

Salvador Dalí's Christ of St John of The Cross

On Friday, Julie and Anthony walked to the Kelvingrove Art Museum. The Kelvingrove has an amazing Dali, pictured above, several Dutch Masters and an impressive pipe organ.

At the Kelvingrove Museum, Anthony discovered there was a Lord Kelvin exhibit at the nearby Hunterian Museum on the Glasgow University Campus. Lord Kelvin was a rockstar mathematician, physicist and engineer of the mid 19th centuries. Besides having a unit of temperature measurement named after him, Kelvin was responsible for establishing telegraph communication between England and the North America. He developed the technology to lay the cable under the Atlantic ocean and equipment to send and receive information. Kelvin pioneered the use of Fourier transformations to compress data and send it over long distances.

Mandatory Plesiosaur Skeleton required in every Natural History Museum in the UK

We caught the Glasgow Hop-on Hop-off bus at the Kelvingrove museum bus stop. Our first stop was the Glasgow Cathedral, but we saw this statue of Prince Albert with a jaunty hat.

St Mungo established Glasgow in the mid 6th century AD. He performed the miracle of the Bird, the Tree, the Fish and the Bell, which are depicted in the Emblem of the City. We have included the story of each miracle a the end of this post.

Iron Bru, #1 Soft drink in Scotland. Suck it Coca Cola.

Before touring the Glasgow Cathedral, we got pitas at a Mediterranean food truck near the Cathedral. We had our first (and possibly last) Iron Bru. Iron Bru tastes like a rusty orange-ish cream soda.

Anthony loves stained glass and ceilings in the Cathedrals. The stained glass tells stories from the bible (when the sermons are in Latin) and the ceilings draw your eye to heaven.

Julie was a bit creeped out that there were some gaps at the edge of this tomb.

Views along the Hop-On Hop Off route.

Residents of Glasgow pride themselves in being friendly and mischievous. Glaswegians started putting a cone on the Wellington Statue in 1985. The city would remove it, but it reappeared almost immediately. In 2005 the city proposed raising the plinth, at significant cost. The residents pushed back. Now, the cone is a fixture.

Friday evening we took a ghost tour. Apparently, Glasgow claims Brahm Stoker wrote Dracula here. The tour was a bit low on boo factor, with more history but Anthony got a few photos on the walk.

On Saturday Morning, Anthony took the bus to the Parkrun at Victoria Park. That afternoon Julie and Anthony walked to the Ubiquitous Chip and had an excellent lunch (thanks to Joan for the recommendation). We didn’t bring our jackets, guaranteeing rain. On our walk back, we got ice cream, stopped by the famous Cotton Rake bakery for pastries and the I.J. Mellis Cheese monger for fancy cheeses (more Wensleydale).

Sunday was another dreary day. Julie and Anthony walked to the Òran Mór event center. The event hall has a terrific mural by Alasdair Gray at Òran Mór on the ceiling. It was closed for a wedding, but the host at the bar let Julie and Anthony in to see it.

We walked through the Glasgow Arboretum which was around the corner and then along the river back to the Air B and B. It rained on us again, I think we finally learnt our lessons about brining rain jackets no matter how nice it looks before we leave the house.

Over Christmas break in 1950, four University of Glasgow students drove to London, broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the Stone of Destiny (aka Stone of Scone) out from under the the coronation chair for the English monarchy. This 330 lb rock had been a symbol of Scottish kings until 1296 when King Edward I stole it and took it back to London to put under his throne. The 1950 theft was considered a felony, and the stone was missing for 4 months before it was anonymously returned to Westminster Abbey and replaced under the chair for Elizabeth I’s coronation.

Sam (our Outlander guide) told us a little history of the stone on our trip. One legend claims that some Scottish monks replaced the real Stone of Destiny with a rock from an outhouse, and it was the outhouse rock that Edward 1 stole. The Scots smile at the thought of all those English monarchs being crowned over a shitter stone. Another legend says that while the students had the Stone of Destiny, they dropped it and it broke. They had a replacement made, and that was what was returned to Westminster.

So the Stone at the bar could be 1) The real Stone 2) The real shitter Stone 3) A replica of the real Stone or 4) a replica of the shitter stone.

Anthony figures he has a 25% chance of touching the REAL Stone of Destiny at the Arlington bar. Julie did not agree with his math. See The Daring Capture of the Stone of Destiny for more details

Above are photos of the monument to cartoonist Bud Neill and his creation Lobey Dosser on the road to the Arlington.

On Monday we said goodbye to fun and friendly Glasgow and headed into the Scottish Highlands.

Maps: 1) Edinburgh to Glasgow. 2) Outlander Tour 3) Hop-on Hop-off / Ghost Tour 4) Parkrun / Ubiquitous Chip 5) Arboretum / Arlington 6) Glasgow to Fort William.

The four legends of Saint Mungo

The City of Glasgow’s coat of arms depicts an oak tree, a robin, a bell and two salmon each with a ring in its mouth. These images relate to the four legends of Saint Mungo.

The Tree that never grew

During his time at the monastery in Culross, Mungo was left in charge of the holy fire which burned in the rectory, ensuring that the flame was not extinguished during the night. However, due to the increasing jealousy of the other boys, they put out the fire in the hope that Mungo would be punished. However, upon waking, Mungo noticed that the fire had gone out. Acting on this discovery, Mungo collected frozen branches from an oak tree, which were ignited as a result of Mungo’s prayers.

The Bird that never flew

The tale of the bird also comes from Mungo’s days in the monastery. At this time, Saint Serf had a pet, Robin. The pet, however, was killed by some of the boys at the monastery, who wished to place the blame on Mungo. Mungo, however, took the bird in his hand and commanded it to live, to which the Robin immediately sat up and began to sing.

The Bell that never rang

It is believed that the bell was given to Mungo by the Pope in Rome. It was said that the bell was used in services to mourn the dead. The bell quickly became a notable symbol in Glasgow. The fate of the original bell is unknown, however, a replacement which was bought by the city’s magistrates in 1641 can still be seen in the People’s Palace Museum.

The Fish that never swam

As mentioned, the salmon in the coat of arms of Glasgow, contains a ring in its mouth. The ring was a gift from Hyddderch Hael, King of Cadzow to his wife Queen Languoreth. Languoreth in turn gave the ring to one of Hydderch knights. The King was suspicious of his wife, believing her to be guilty of infidelity. The King organised a hunting party in which the knight would be present. As the knight slept the King took the ring and threw it into the River Clyde. The following day the King demanded to see the ring which he had given Languoreth, if she could not produce the ring then she would be sentenced to death. A distraught Languoreth visited Mungo and pleaded with him to help find the ring. Acting on this Mungo sent one of his monks to the River, instructing him to bring back the first fish that he caught. On the monks return, Mungo removed the ring from inside the mouth of the salmon.

From: Folklore Scotland