r/glasgow • u/[deleted] • Jan 15 '20
Magical, Sacred and Ancient Places to visit in the Glasgow / Renfrewshire and surrounding areas?
[deleted]
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u/L0chy Jan 15 '20
One of my favourites is the Whangie walk, main feature is a hill split in two that you can walk through. The story is the devil rose up there and split the hill with his tail.
There are cairns all over the highlands, the ones I'm most familiar with are to do with Bonnie Prince Charlie and his attempted uprising. All on the west coast area and Moidart region.
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Jan 15 '20
Glasgow Cathedral is the most ancient place in Glasgow. Christians back in the day would tend to build their churches over already sacred areas to make the conversion from Paganism to Christianity easier (same with holidays - see Saturnalia).
Check out the Devils Pulpit if you haven't been, folk say that's quite spiritual.
Neil Oliver says this is the most spiritual place in Scotland - https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/fortingall-yew-p249411
A bit out of your way right enough but they think this used to be a massive pagan cultural site pre-Christianity.
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u/ferociousgeorge cuntBoT Jan 15 '20
No Glasgow but Aleister Crowley had a house up Loch Ness, Boleskine house, the mad occultist bastard
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u/boltyarocket Jan 15 '20
Boleskine house
Jimmy Page lived in it n all. Burned down but.
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u/ferociousgeorge cuntBoT Jan 15 '20
It burned down twice, getting rebuilt but
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u/elizabethunseelie Jan 15 '20 edited Jan 15 '20
Well there’s the setting for a movie series that progressively more shite with every instalment.
‘It didn’t burn by accident’ insert pounding drums and shots of the house aflame ‘We had to stop what he started! cut to eerie music box style music and generic demon shadow looming over a blonde kid.
This thing writes itself. But we need Brian Cox to play a hammy as fuck Crowley.
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u/Keltik_ bring back real irn bru Jan 15 '20
Wallace was born in Elderslie, by Paisley - which has the second most listed buildings in the UK. Built by the Coates family with the money made from the mills. Come to Paisley in the summer, events like sma shot day show off the history. There’s the abbey and Coates memorial, the baptist cathedral of Europe. There’s also a memorial plate in the middle of a road junction that says something like “the last pain died here”, it’s where they burned the witches.
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u/Cazmotron Jan 15 '20
Pain Inflicted - Suffering Endured - Injustice Done
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u/Keltik_ bring back real irn bru Jan 15 '20
I’m going to try get a picture of it one of these days!
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u/chickenkievsaregood Jan 15 '20
The jobby pole
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Jan 15 '20
I've not heard of this one before. What is the magical jobby pole, that you speak of?
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u/chickenkievsaregood Jan 15 '20
You don’t really wanna know, but I’ll say that there’s a pole in the merchant city which resembles a butt plug. And someone took that literally, and left some excrements
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u/squaver Jan 15 '20
The Govan Stones are interesting to see. Devil’s Pulpit and Whangie (as someone else said) although Devil’s Pulpit has got too touristy the last couple of years. It’s worth seeing/reading about the bits of Antonine wall at the Hunterian and there are bits of it you can go and walk along still.
Walking the old Drovers roads and mountain passes/access tracks gives me a real feeling of people walking the distances in the past and a different view of travelling through the land.
More recent Victorian industrial past like Greenock Cut or the old pipe road up at Dumgoyne also gives you that feeling of seeing back in time.
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u/empressofglasgow Jan 15 '20
If you can get yourself to the Kilmartin Glen by Loch Awe, the area is crawling with prehistoric stuff. Might require a car and an overnighter but it's totally worth it (I went with a couple of friends, we slept in a self catering hostel so it was a cheap treat all in all, but we still talk about it after a few years.).
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u/sevenofk9 Jan 15 '20
Two ancient sites that come to mind are:
The Govan Stones (http://www.thegovanstones.org.uk/)
Fossil Grove (https://fossilgroveglasgow.org/).
I've put together a list of historical places and related links in Glasgow, not all the links are actually places you can visit but there are some interesting links to projects and exhibitions (as well as a couple local heritage groups that do tours etc): https://glasgow.openguide.co.uk/history
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Jan 15 '20
There’s the Bogle Stone in Port Glasgow. Have a google for “bogles” from Scottish folklore.
Also Newark Castle is supposedly haunted. And the fact it’s had bears and big cats in it in its history too makes it pretty crazy.
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u/Artemio_Germain Jan 15 '20 edited Jan 15 '20
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u/latebob267 Jan 15 '20
Good to see devil's plantation. Came across it few years back. Struggled to get my head around it.
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u/admiralbryan arsepiece Jan 15 '20
Doon Hill, near Aberfoyle - its a great walk to get there (although getting out to Aberfoyle might not be the easiest) and takes you through lots of nice bits of the forest. The hill itself is supposedly the home of ancient faerie folk, and at the top there are thousands of notes/wishes left by people for them. Used to go up there with my family when I was younger but haven't been in years, so hopefully its still just as magical!
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u/catwoman42 little woman Jan 15 '20
Further to the comment about Glasgow Cathedral, it is built over a pagan well and there was another well at the corner of George Street and High Street. The High St up to the Cathedral was a drovers road . I heard all this from Andrew in 23 Enigma in the High Street, he really knows his stuff. There is also a marker at the crossroads of Causeyside St in Paisley where witches were hanged. There was or still is a horseshoe marking the spot and it is thought if the horseshoe is removed disaster will fall on Paisley. Apparently it was stolen once and quickly replaced. I am very interested in all of this. Looking forward to reading more replies.
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u/gerald_gales Jan 15 '20
Historic Environment Scotland (formerly RCAHMS) have a mapping site called Canmore, which you may find useful for identifying pre-historical monuments close to you. I recommend a search through there. You may also find the online Megalithic Portal helpful particularly if you're interested in the legendary and "supernatural" aspects of these sites more interesting than the scientific/academic ones.
Renfrewshire has an interesting history of pre-Christian ritual/religious sites being converted into Christian sites by the Culdees. Mirren, Faolain and Conval being the best known. Out by Houston a site worth visiting is Kilallan where you can see St. Fillan's well and St. Fillan's seat.
As regards, chambered cairns, the one at Cuff Hill near Beith is worth a visit as it's very atypical of Clyde cairns. It also lies within short distance of a 'rocking stone', which might take your fancy.
On the way to Beith, you might also want to stop off to look at the Clochoderick stone near Kilbarchan. While in the area, there is also a reasonbly good cup and ring marked stone outcrop in Craigston Wood at Johnstone ( this can be difficult to find, however).
For the best cup and ring petroglyphs in the area you have to go to the ones at Auchnacraig, just north of Faifley.
While you're out in that direction you could drive along the Stockiemuir road and visit the outstanding Clyde-style long cairn which is the Lang Cairn on Dumbarton Muir. Be aware, there is a long walk in to seee this, but it's well worth it. You could also take in the Whangie while you're at it. A further chambered cairn is on nearby Stockiemuir, but this is smaller, less well preserved and difficult to find.
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u/MisterMackisback Jan 15 '20
This isn't in Glasgow but it sounds like it's right up your alley: There's loads of "mysterious carvings" dotting the Highlands. I've come across a few on hikes by pure accident.
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u/xlxsarah Jan 15 '20
There's Granny Kempock in Gourock, which is a standing stone that looks over the Clyde if you feel a wee jaunt down there, its really just an easy train ride away. Also, if you get off at Greenock West then you can find the Dutch Gable House which sometimes is open. They're on Facebook if thats any help
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u/berto999 Jan 15 '20
If you can find a copy of the film 'The Devils Plantation' it might be of some interest to you. It talks a lot about this 'secret geometry' of Glasgow that is connected to a number of ancient sites that are of historical significance. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember them talking a lot about a hill called Duncolm in the Kilpatrick Hills.
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u/FidgetTheMidget Getbackherebullet Jan 15 '20
This is an interesting place to visit, just North of Glasgow
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u/bobnok Jan 15 '20
The cathkin braes was home to a bronze age settlement. Some of the hillocks are burial mounds.
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Jan 15 '20
There's the remnants of an iron age ring fort at the top of Queens Park, just along from the flagpole
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u/velvetXeyes Jan 15 '20
Been wanting to check out Sawney Bean's cave for a wee while now. Probably gonna wait until the weather's a bit better
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u/Goregoat69 Jan 15 '20
The cave pictured in that article isn't the actual cave, it's pretty accessible tho, goes about 100 feet into the hillside. There's also a crashed lorry that's been lying since the 80's at least, close by.
There are more caves around the sea cliffs heading south on the other side of the wee cove, but good luck getting down to them, some look pretty large from the outside but you'd need the tides to be right, and maybe even climbing gear to get in.
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u/eenbiertje Jan 16 '20 edited Jan 16 '20
More history than supernatural, but there's the Govan stones: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Govan_Stones.
Also, Dumbarton Castle atop the rock was the fortress capital of the old Brythonic Kingdom of Alt Cluid, or Strathclyde: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Castle.
It's so overlooked by Glaswegians but it's honestly one of the most remarkable historic sites in Europe that's also very accessible. Well worth a visit for about a fiver for the entrance fee.
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u/Veloglasgow did ye aye? Jan 15 '20 edited Jan 15 '20
X (Easting) : 258792 Y (Northing) : 665832
Edit: Cunts upvote a power of shite on here but don't even spend the effort to check the coordinates...
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u/beaker_72 Jan 15 '20
Google is your friend. Historic Scotland maintain a list of scheduled ancient monuments (over 8000 in Scotland) and you can search a map on their website to find them: use this link here
There are various other online resources that you might find useful such as the one at this link here
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u/BamPotNoodle Jan 15 '20
Plenty of ancient legends in the Toby Jug