The Slow Flow of Glasgow: Valley Sounds, Mountain Form

In any given cityscape the lack of a discernible horizon (hills in the distance, a clawing coast), can have the distressing and dispiriting effect of rendering the city a place without end, and a place without an easy escape route. As animals, this 'lack of exit' can have a visceral and deeply upsetting effect on us. At a subconscious level of being, we begin to feel enclosed as opposed to enopened, hemmed in as opposed to aerated. The city can then have an asphyxiating effect on the spirit until such a point where the spirit can no longer be said to exist.

With its cincture of hills, its relatively large geographic area, and its amenable population of some 700,000, Glasgow as a cityscape is a city that finds favour with being 'small' and aerated. I'm sure if Kentigern were to see it today, a view from one of the hills, he might be quite surprised at how much Glasgow has managed to maintain its glas chu ('dear green hollow') aspect, considering that some 50 years ago and more, you wouldn't have been able to see anything such were the atrocious levels of pollution from factories, shipyards and the like. It's as if the body of the city, grown up from infancy through industrialistaion (adolescence and adulthood), has emerged into the wisdom of middle age - no more smoking, no more obesity, a growing eco-geo awareness...

HORIZON 0 : Looking north-west to the Campsie Fells from Queen's Park.

HORIZON 1: Looking north in winter to the Campsie Fells from Queen's Park.

HORIZON 2: Looking north-west from Duncarnock Mount to the city of Glasgow and the great lava banks of the Kilpatrick Hills and the Campsie Fells beyond.