A view of the Cathedral and Upper Town in the 1670's
The site of the Glasgow Necropolis also played an integral part of the history of the medieval City of Glasgow as can be seen from this view of the Cathedral and Upper Town in the 1670's - taken from Captain John Abraham Slezer's 'Theatrum Scotia' published in 1693. The view is taken from the Grey Rock looking North West across the City. Glasgow Cathedral and Bishop's Castle are clearly identifiable to the right and in the foreground the Molindinar Burn, now Wishart Street, ripples past the gardens of the prebendal manses that sloped down from the Drygate. The houses of High Street are seen and of the five spires in the background the centre one is that of the Old College.
At that time the Grey Rock was known as the lands of Wester Craigs and alternatively Golf Hill. It was later known as the Fir Park and the Merchant's Graveyard before becoming known as the 'City of the Dead'. Almost 330 years later one can still stand on the grey rock in the exact position the artist chose for this painting, just slightly below the John Knox Monument, to view the cathedral and its precincts in all their gothic grandeur.
The Necropolis has been described as a ‘unique representation of Victorian Glasgow, built when Glasgow was the second city of the empire. It reflects the feeling of confidence and wealth and security of that time.’ It is a memorial to the merchant patriarchs of the City and contains the remains of almost every eminent Glaswegian of its day. Monuments designed by leading Glaswegian architects including Alexander ‘Greek’ Thompson, Bryce, Hamilton and Mackintosh adorn it. Their designs are executed by expert masons and sculptors who contributed ornate and sculptural detail of the finest quality. The Necropolis remains one of the most significant cemeteries in Europe, exceptional in its contribution to the townscape, its symbolic relationship to Glasgow Cathedral and to the medieval heart of the City. It is a major attraction to visitors from the UK and oversees. It is also a ‘park’ valued by Glaswegian’s for study. On a clear day looking west, one may see the valley of the Clyde bounded by the hills of Cowal, Kyle and Cunninghame.
Glasgow Cathedral and The Bridge of Sighs c1904
St. Mungo and the Great Grey Rock
The first Christian community in Glasgow was established on the site which became Glasgow cathedral, consecrated in 1136. Since medieval times the Necropolis has been separated from the Cathedral grounds by the Molindinar Ravine. Unfortunately the Molindinar stream is now culverted beneath Wishart Street, which incidentally is named after George Wishart - the mentor of John Knox. Legend has it that St. Mungo was obliged to bury Fergus, a holy man from Carnock near Stirling. Fergus’s dying wish was that his body should be placed on a cart drawn by two untamed bulls and Mungo was to follow the bulls and bury Fergus where they stopped. The next morning St. Mungo harnessed the bulls to a wagon and placed Fergus’s body on it. They travelled West for some thirty miles before they arrived at a charming glen, with a great grey rock on one side and a beautiful burn beneath. This is where Fergus was buried and St. Mungo built his cell here. The burn was the Molindinar and the great grey rock was the Fir Park, now the site of the Glasgow Necropolis. St. Mungo’s daily ritual was to rise early and rush in all weathers into the Molindinar where he would remain until he had chanted or sung the whole of the one hundred and fifty Psalms of David. When he was finished St Mungo would lay himself on a stone on the hillside to dry - on the hillside now more commonly known as the Necropolis.
This early Christian settlement became so important in the Christian world that St. Columba came to visit St. Mungo. They strolled along the banks of the Molindinar and it is said that they liked one another so much that they exchanged pastoral staves - in token of the esteem they bore for each other.
The Belle of the Brae
From the Grey Rock one can view the site of the famous battle in High Street, where in 1297 Sir William Wallace and three hundred cavalry routed the garrison of a thousand English soldiers under Percy of Northumberland who were occupying the Bishop's Castle – now the site of the Royal Infirmary. Wallace with a small force made a direct attack on the Castle which lured out the English troops. Their armour clad infantry fought the Scots troops back along the High Street to the Belle of the Brae where Auchinleck, Wallace’s uncle, arrived from the Drygate with cavalry reinforcements. Trapped in a pincer movement the English footsoldiers were defeated in battle and the Castle taken. Wallace cleft Percy’s skull then pursued the English Bishop Anthony Beck all the way to Bothwell Castle.
Glasgow Necropolis c1905
The Molindinar and Wishart Street
In places the Molindinar was as wide as the Clyde. Various prints of the Fir Park from the 1830’s show the Bridge of Sighs over the mighty Molindinar with its original walkways intact. An artificial waterfall was another feature of this magnificent bridge which remains intact today Sadly in 1877 the Molendinar Burn was culverted below Wishart Street and piped to the Clyde.
The Lady Well
Before the Reformation, holy wells were frequently dedicated to the Virgin Mary and other saints and were sometimes renowned for their healing properties. Our Lady’s Well, which dates to the Thirteenth Century, was said to have been for the use of commoners who were not allowed to use the nearby Priest’s Well - which was reserved for the wealthy living in the old City. Local people used the Lady Well for their water supply until the early 19th century when the threat of contamination from outbreaks of cholera and typhoid forced its closure. It was thought that the spring may have been tainted because of its nearness to the graves. Most wells in Glasgow became redundant after a fresh water supply was pumped into the City from Loch Katrine in the 1860’s. A plaque notes that it was restored in 1836, rebuilt by the Merchant’s House in 1874, and most recently restored by Tennant Caledonian Breweries in 1983.
The 1820 Insurrection
1820 was the year of the Scottish Insurrection. This rising, which fought for social and economic justice, workers' rights and an independent Scottish parliament, began at the Fir Park where several hundred demonstrators had gathered. It is alleged that government agents on the Grey Rock misdirected seventy radicals to go to Falkirk, where armed English sympathisers would join up with them and help take the Carron Iron Works. These radicals were arrested on route and three weavers were executed for high treason. On the 30th August 1820, a crowd of 20,000 people gathered on Glasgow Green to watch the execution of the 63 year old Strathaven weaver, James Wilson. Wilson mounted the scaffold with his captors, to hisses and shouts of "Murder!" from the sympathetic crowd as he was hanged, then beheaded. The sentence of quartering could not be carried out because of the hostility of the crowd. A few days later John Baird and Andrew Hardie from Glasgow were hanged and beheaded in Broad Street, Stirling.
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