I constructed a Glasgow walking expedition after noticing the close proximity of Dawsholm Park and Possil Marsh in the northern part of the city. Both are officially designated as nature reserves. The Western Necropolis lay in between and I also included a stretch of the Forth & Clyde Canal in the route plan. It was a sunny Saturday morning as a boarded an early bus in my home village, which took an hour to reach the city centre.
Glasgow has a great suburban rail network, containing more track miles than any other city outside London. Many of the routes are electrified and it's easy to reach the outlying areas in a short space of time. A few decades ago, the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) was given autonomy to run all local rail services within Greater Glasgow. They even produced a map in the same style as the London tube network. Other regions of the UK to be granted similar powers were Merseyside and Tyneside. The move enabled local transport chiefs to promote and develop the system within their own backyard, allocating funding appropriately. All Scottish domestic services now operate under the Scotrail franchise, which to its credit has pursued projects involving the creation of new and reopened infrastructure. From Queen Street Station, I took a train out to Kelvindale, which cost just £2.70 for an off-peak return. You can certainly zip around Glasgow at weekends for very little money. The halt at Kelvindale is situated on an old freight branch (dismantled in 1988) and it first saw trains in 2005 as part of the Maryhill extension, which fed into the re-establishment of the Larkhall connection. I got my bearings and arrived at Dawsholm Park within 10 minutes. Opened in 1922 and now designated as a nature reserve, large parts of this 81-acre site have been deliberately left in a wild state and I soon encountered a flower meadow criss-crossed with paths. I found a bench to apply sun cream. It was a scorcher and I had been burned the week before at school sports day, probably because I spent long periods standing in roughly the same spot as a finishing line judge. I would be constantly on the move today but I didn't want to take any chances. I hadn't planned to explore the whole park with its extensive network of woodland trails, merely cut across a corner en route to the River Kelvin. Glasgow's second watercourse borders a third of the Dawsholm's perimeter and there is only one bridge. I crossed over and made my way up to Maryhill Road. A pleasant footpath took me past a sports complex and into Maryhill Park. I then had a spell of pavement walking before entering the Western Necropolis - actually four cemeteries in one. Lambhill opened in 1881, followed by the Western Necropolis and St Kentigern's (Roman Catholic) the following year. Over 1000 war dead from across the Commonwealth lie in these interconnected sites. Finally, the Glasgow Hebrew Burial Ground was founded in 1989.
The vast graveyard was immaculately tended and I always enjoy a peaceful walk in this type of environment. I navigated by dead reckoning towards the Lambhill gates and crossed straight over the A897 into Possil Marsh. This urban nature reserve has a shallow freshwater loch surrounded by marsh, swamp and fen, with areas of willow scrub and grassland. The marshy areas support rare plants and are of special scientific interest. The wider habitat is an important staging post for warblers and waterfowl during the spring and autumn migration seasons. Breeding birds found on the reserve include reed bunting, moorhen and the rather secretive water rail. Possil Marsh is a small surviving part of an extensive system of lochs and wetlands that once covered large parts of Central Scotland, before being drained for agricultural use. The reserve has been protected since the 1950s and is now looked after by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. One main path leads around the perimeter although there is a rough track that brings you closer to the loch. I investigated this route but could only proceed so far until the foliage became dense and the ground boggy. I caught glimpses of the reed beds surrounding the loch before returning to the primary path. One unexpected find was an inscribed smooth boulder commemorating the approximate location of a meteorite strike in 1804. The falling space debris apparently created a hole 18 inches deep and the material is now on display in Glasgow's Hunterian Museum. The Forth & Clyde Canal runs along the eastern edge of Possil Marsh and I exited on to the towpath. After half a mile, I cut back into the reserve, taking a path that gained height and allowed me to see the loch in the centre of the landscape. I also came across a copy of a Roman distance stone, marking the line of the Antonine Wall - the turf frontier that once cut through central Scotland. A sculpture of a legionnaire's head stood nearby, looking out over the Kelvin Valley, at one time the edge of an empire. The original purpose of the distance stones was to record the length of the construction project. The route of the wall passes through five modern local authorities and a replica stone is sited in each council territory. The original Glasgow block was unearthed by a farmer in 1965 while ploughing and it too now resides in the Hunterian Museum, which has an excellent gallery dedicated to this short-lived 37-mile fortification.
I retraced my steps and left the canal at the next road overbridge. A 15-minute walk brought me to Possilpark & Parkhouse railway station, located four stops closer to Glasgow Queen Street on the line I had travelled out on. I had a half hour wait until the next service back to the city centre and relaxed in the sunshine. Another fine day spent exploring a few hidden corners of old Glasgow.
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