West Hills blog

As you go out of Queens Park, you may pass Camphill House, built in 1806 as a private house, later a Museum of Costume and now flats:

Then just outside the park is Langside Hall. This building was originally a branch of the National Bank of Scotland in Glasgow City Centre. Built 1847 and remodelled by James Salmon in 1856, it was dismantled and rebuilt in its present location in 1901. 

Camphill Gate - add

Bellahouston Park was bought  by Glasgow Corporation in 1895, and opened as a public park in 1896.

In 1938 the Empire exhibition was held at the park.Of the 200 palaces and pavilions that were built for the exhibition, only the Palace of Art remains.:

The most prominent structure was the Tait Tower (officially the Tower of Empire), 300 feet tall. Although it could have remained as a permanent monument after the exhibition, the tower was handed over to the British Army and demolished in 1939. The rumour that the structure was demolished to avoid it being used as a reference point by German bombers is an urban myth!  The CHECKPOINT is located on the site of the tower, and you can still see some of the foundations - see the ring, with the checkpoint sculpture beyond:

Just to the east of the Checkpoint are the foundations of Bellahouston House. This was built in the 19th century and later demolished, For a time this was owned by Moses Steven, a partner in a West Indies slave merchant company.

Just below the checkpoint you can see a low wall that formed the platform on which Pope John Paul II gave an address in 1982 to one of the largest crowds ever seen in the city.

In 1996 Charles Rennie Mackintosh's House for an Art Lover was completed from original drawings of 1901, and now serves as a centre for the visual arts. 

photo here!

Running along the south side of the park is Mosspark Boulevard, seen here in the 1920s when the trams still ran along it:

After crossing the boulevard, you go through the Mosspark Estate. This was one of the first housing estates (along with Knightswood) to be built in the city, completed 1923 (photo below was taken in 1927, looking N to the Park) . Cottage flats and semi-detached houses, a deliberate departure from the tenements designed to reduce housing density:

Crookston Castle was built around 1390, making it the 2nd oldest building in Glasgow (after the Cathedral).  A remnant of a massive stone towerhouse, set high on a hill. Very unusual plan, continental, comprising central three-storey rectangular block of ashlar-dressed rubble framed by four taller square towers, one surviving to wallhead. Beautifully built, it is now a ruin, cared for by Historic Scotland.

The next CHECKPOINT is the Water Tower of the former Leverndale Hospital (formerly Hawkhead Asylum), built in 1890. Here's a 2019 aerial view after the conversion to private housing:

Depending on your route choice (!) on your way to the Cowglen checkpoint, you may cross this bridge over the Levern Water. This was the main entrance to Househill house (2nd photo), owned by Kate Cranston of tearoom fame, which was demolished in 1939:

As you cross Pollok Golf course, off to your left is a prehistoric barrow in a small wood. Its 2m high, if you fancy some sort hill reps!

Pollok House was built in 1752 and thought to be designed by William Adam, then extended in the early 20th century. Given to the City of Glasgow in 1966.

As you go through the wood after leaving the Patsy Tree CHECKPOINT you pass through an area which was excavated in 2008. The conclusion was that here are the remains of a dwelling of the 14th-16th century. 

Just before you leave the park, you go through the gates and past the lodgehouse:

400m off the route as you come out of the park is Haggs Castle, built in 1585 by John Maxwell of Pollok, restored in 1860, used for a time as a council museum and now used again as a private residence.

As you come up Titwood Road and past Morrisons, remember that on this site used to be an ice rink: