Today, I decided to visit Glasgow's famous Necropolis with key driver being comment posted on my separate Ancestry blog from Australian descendants of people named Edington. Early this year I posted information sourced from a Edington memorial stone at the Necropolis but the video image was poor quality so I decided to try and improve the image quality with a more sophisticated camera. This endeavour was only partly successful due to the unusual shallowness of the inscription aggravated by some 100 years of weathering. The amended posting can be found here.

The journey up to the Necropolis ( City of the Dead) took about 40 mins via bicycle and benefited from light Sunday traffic. On the way I had opportunity to 'dip into' some of Glasgow famous sites and sights such as the Squiggly Bridge over the River Clyde, the Tolbooth Steeple and Glasgow Cathedral. Upon the reaching the Necropolis ( which benefits from a high aspect) I took opportunity to photograph a selection of some of the impressive monuments there.

A photo record of the trip is provided below together with summary comments.

This is the Charles Clark Mackirdy monument which dates from 1891.Mackirdy was a wealthy Glaswegian businessman owning a large cotton spinning company and estates in the West Indies.

This is the William Rae Wilson Mausoleum dating from 1849. Dr Wilson was born in Paisley in 1772, lost his first wife after just 18 months and then undertook travels in the Middle East. His second wife built this domed octagonal Moorish kiosk built in the style of Sepulchre monuments from Palestine.

This is the Major Archibald Douglas Monteath Mausoleum and dates from 1842. Monteath's fortune came form the 'liberation' of a consignment of precious gems belonging to an Indian Maharajah. The building is based on the Knights Templar church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This is an aspect of Glasgow Cathedral which dates from the 12th century. It is dedicated to St. Mungo ( aka St. Kentigern).


Aspect of the Necropolis skyline from Glasgow Cathedral. The Necropolis contains the remains of some 50,000 people, mainly the great, good and wealthy of Victorian Glasgow from the time when Glasgow was the second city of the British Empire.


Statue of explorer and missionary, David Livingstone against a backdrop of Glasgow Cathedral.


This is the Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross and dates from 1636. In its day this stood at he centre of Glasgow and formed part of a larger building which had the unusual dual role of Town Hall and Prison.


This shows the new Squiggly Bridge over the River Clyde. This structure has won various awards for its architecture and engineering. See this video for a closer view.

Overall, a successful trip with original objective achieved.

Labels: Glasgow

posted by Nigel Cole @ 9:34 AM