17. Buchanan of Dowanhill Monument Designed by J.Brown 1844
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Commisioned by John and Thomas Buchanan of Dowanhill, merchants in Glasgow, on the death of their father James Buchanan (1756-1844). The site consists of three plots of ten square yards of Necropolis ground – thirty square yards purchased at a total cost of £64. The monument is based on two monuments from ancient Athens, the lower half being the Tower of Winds and the upper based on the Monument of Lysicrates. The carving is by James Shanks.
The top half of the monument was damaged when blown down in 1856. Its replacement had a solid centre to add stability. The lower support columns are simplified Corinthian order without volutes and the roof is a replica of the original fish scale tiling surmounted by a row of antefixae. The top is capped by scrolls intended to support a tripod. |
18. Major Archibald Douglas Monteath Mausoleum Designed by D.Cousin 1842
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Monteath served in the East India Company. Allegedly, Monteath made his fortune when an elephant carrying precious gems belonging to a Maharajah was captured and ‘relieved’ of its load by him. When he died £1,000 was left to build his monument. There was a shortfall, however the Merchants’ House gifted the extra land needed and this spectacular mausoleum was built.
Based on the Knights Templar Church of the Holy Sepulchre, experts dispute whether it is modelled on the Jerusalem Church or possibly their Cambridge Church. This 30 ft diameter Neo-Norman rotunda has grotesque faces around the doorway and each niched window has a different design. In 1850 Monteath’s brother, James Douglas Monteath of Rosehall and Stonebyres was also interred here. |
19. Dunn of Duntocher Monument Designed by JT Rochead 1848
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William Dunn was born in Kirkintilloch in 1770, trained as a cotton spinner in Glasgow and then spent four years learning iron-turning and machine making.
One of the most successful Glaswegian entrepreneur capitalists Dunn became an extensive landowner, most notably the estates of Duntocher, Milton, Kilbowie, Boquaneran, Duntiglennen and Auchentoshan – farmland at that time, this landbank is now worth countless millions.
In 1808 he bought the Duntocher Mill and acquired Faifley Mill, the Dalnotter Iron Works and built Hardgate Mill. Owner of a successful machine-making works on High John Street, Dunn installed his own machinery in the five mills he owned. Dunn eventually employed nearly 2,000 people in cotton manufacture, agriculture and mining. |
He lived luxuriously in his handsome mansion in St. Vincent Place and also kept a country house at Dalmuir. It is recorded that Dunn had an excessive liking for law pleas, and consequently he was constantly in the Court of Session with his neighbours, particularly Lord Blantyre and Hamilton of Cochno.
On his death in 1849 Dunn’s brother Alex inherited his fortune and had this mausoleum built. The monument is executed in a severe classical style with rectangular Doric pilasters in Irish Granite.
20. Reverend William Brash Monument possibly designed by J.Bryce 1851
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The Reverend William Brash was minister of East Campbell Street United Presbyterian Church, just off Gallowgate at Glasgow Cross. He died in November 1851, aged 58, of apoplexy. His monument is a tall elaborate Elizabethan structure, projecting into four wings of a St Andrews Cross. This supports a truncated square pillar, terminating in a cinerary urn. Other members of his family are buried in an adjoining plot, most notably his son Walter Brash.
From this point on the Grey Rock one has a superb view across the lower Necropolis - ‘The happy valley of the shadow of death’ and southern Glasgow. One hundred and eighty years ago it was described as, ‘Glasgow, located in the midst of a vast magazine of fuel, and launching its aerial cataracts towards the blue heavens from a thousand artificial volcanoes, which vomit forth their black Tartarean vapour in one continuous torrent’. |
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