The Telescopic City

I have always known Glasgow to be a hilly city. I was, before all, educated on two hills: Camphill in Langside and Garnethill in the centre itself. I had to climb one of Glasgow’s  steepest streets (Scott Street, gradient 1:5) every morning, five days a week, to get to school. From my art class window in the appropriately named Hill Street, the solid outline of the Campsie Fells provided all the art that was necessary.

 From Garnethill looking north to the Camspie Fells.

Within Glasgow the hills are many (Glasgow is something of a hill-strewn hollow, masses of moraine and glacial deposits rising up as drumlins):

Scotstounhill - Jordanhill - Maryhill

Partickhill - Gilmorehill - Ruchill

Lambhill - Balgrayhill - Stobhill

Firhill - Sighthill - Petershill

Blackhill - Cranhill - Sandyhills

Simshill - Priesthill - Nitshill

Crosshill - Govanhill -

Mounts Florida and Vernon -

to name but a few...


Their streets are like telescopes drawing us into the distance.

The streets, too, of the city centre combine to make something of a San Fran Glasgow (Alas! without the trams) -

Scott Street - Pitt Street - Douglas Street
Wellington Street - Hope Street - Renfield Street
Bath Street - West George Street - St. Vincent Street

Montrose Street - North Portland Street

The sloping city, stuck onto the side of a hill.

 North Portland Street


To say nothing of the old favourites further out, streets whose pavements boast bannisters:

Cleveden Road
Gardner Street
Clarence Drive

The city's slender curves meet us at the end of every street. From the top of  Buchanan Street we are propelled into the hinterland behind Eaglesham (a bit like Rudolph Hess in 1941 when his plane came down at Floors Farm) and the hill of Dunwan, (thought at some point to be an extant Iron Age hill fort, but now thought more of as a ‘prestige homestead’ from some time during the 1st millennium AD). From Byres Road, (Glasgow’s second busiest thoroughfare after Buchanan Street), looking south, we are shot into the inimitable Mohawk of Neilston Pad some 20km away, its conifer comb-over striking a rare pose. From Crow Road, it’s the sheer-faced ‘Craigie’, Duncarnock Mount, behind Barrhead, upon which a sermon is given every Easter Sunday, one hopes to the hills themselves. From Great Western Road, looking west, it’s the Kilpatrick Hills, and from Lincoln Avenue, looking north, it’s the asymmetrical mound of Carneddans Wood on the eastern corner of the Kilpatricks.

From practically every north-south street on the south side of the city, it’s the Campsies and Kilpatricks that gently rear up in front of you. And looking west, it’s the Kilpatricks again, and/or the serene misshapen slopes of the hills of Kilmacolm and Inverclyde, Queenside Muir and Duchal Moor. The importance of this horizon aspect, this clawing curvature, cannot be underestimated for its capacity to lead one out and to 'educate'.

Looking down the barrel of Buchanan Street into the Renfrewshire Hills beyond.

Looking south on Byres Road towards the inimitable mohawk of Neilston Pad some 10km distant.

Looking north along Armadale Street in Dennistoun into the Cathkin Braes beyond.

Looking west from Kent Road outside the Mitchell Library to Mistylaw and Queenside Hill.

The aptly named Rose Street, a street with hills at both ends... and an art house cinema.

Rose Street looking north.

The Great Western Road looking west towards the Kilpatrick Hills.

From Barrhead train station looking north to the Kilpatrick Hills and its highest point, the dome of Duncolm.

The avenue that started it all: Lincoln Avenue in Scotstounhill looking north through Knightswood to Carneddans Wood on the eastern edge of the Kilpatrick Hills.