Glasgow Necropolis

Glasgow Necropolis Heritage Trail includes 35 sites of interest.  If you visit the Necropolis and use the map available to download here it will take you approximately 1 hour 15 minutes to follow the Heritage trail from the black gates to the Jewish Section and back again.

29. Robert Stewart of Murdostoun Monument Designed by J.Brown 1866

Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1851 – 1854, Robert Stewart is fondly remembered for introducing the water supply from Loch Katrine to Glasgow.  This Roman Doric structure in the Necropolis shows an Elizabethan upper section with four arches surmounted with a cinerary urn. A splendid fountain erected to his memory stands in Kelvingrove Park, appropriately enough as it was the same Lord Provost Stewart in 1853 who secured the lands of Kelvin Grove and Woodside for the creation of the aforementioned Park.

The original outlay, something like £90,000, was initially considered a heavy sacrifice, but the visionary Stewart had confidently anticipated that a large proportion of the sum would be realised from sale of land and building feus on certain parts of the grounds - an anticipation which time has shown to be perfectly correct. Arguably the centrepiece of the park and the jewel in the Kelvingrove crown, the magnificent Stewart Fountain commemorates the breathtaking feat of Victorian engineering which provided fresh drinking water for the residents of the City and eradicated the twin threat of cholera and typhus. At that time clean and fresh drinking water was a priority for public health in Glasgow. Robert Stewart had been Lord Provost when the scheme was first proposed in 1854 and had fought strongly against powerful commercial interests to bring the scheme into being. The Kelvingrove fountain erected in 1872 is based on themes from Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Lady of the lake’ and the main figurine represents the fair Ellen Douglas.



30. Charles Clark Mackirdy Designed by J.Thomson(senior) 1891

Charles Clark Mackirdy (1811-1891) was the owner of a large cotton spinning company.  His parents had been successful merchants with extensive estates in the West Indies.  Mackirdy lived at 5 Blythswood Square Glasgow till his death at 80 years of age. He was buried on Christmas Eve in 1891. This is another monument based on the popular design of Lysicrates with a Corinthian rotunda boasting unusually fine granite detail. Note that the door is in cast iron. The sculptor of this finely detailed choragic Corinthian rotunda was David Buchanan.

31. Reverend George Marshall Middleton Monument This monument was designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and sculpted by J and G Mossman 1867.

The reverend George Marshall Middleton, first minister of St.Vincent Street United Presbyterian Church died in 1866. The following year the congregation subscribed for this monument and also for a monument for his predecessor Reverend Beattie. (see item 32). The obelisk was an ancient Egyptian form which Thomson regarded as an ‘imperishable thought, a symbol of truth and justice.’

32. Reverend Alexander Ogilvie Beattie Monument  This monument was designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and sculpted by J and G Mossman 1867.

A supporter of Greek Thomson, the Reverend Alexander Ogilvie Beattie was the first minister for Gordon Street United Presbyterian Church. He died in 1858, but if he had lived Reverend Beattie would have undoubtedly become the first minister of St Vincent Street UP Church, which he had commissioned to Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and was under construction at his untimely death. This monument consists of an obelisk and urn and a tomb chest with on a base of polygonal masonry. It is considered to be Thomson’s most impressive and innovative cemetery monument, notable in that it lies on a slope and rises from a projecting plinth of cyclopean masonry. Recognised as the paradigm of Thomson’s meta architecture, this piece also uses the same Grecian motifs that Thomson used in paint in many of his interiors.

< Monuments 25-28

Monuments 33-35 >

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