Scotland

In the morning we walked to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. This is housed in a beautiful sandstone building. There is quite an eclectic,is of exhibits, from Ancient Egypt, to Canadian wildlife, to original artworks including a Salvador Dali original.

We stopped for a quick lunch on our way back to our apartment, in an up-and-coming neighbourhood called Finnieston. Glasgow is an interesting city - there are many old derelict buildings, many new buildings, and much construction. All of this is interspersed, and gives a rather “down-at-heel” impression. We were also struck by the Scottish accents here - much more pronounced than we had heard elsewhere in Scotland.

In the late afternoon, we were picked up at our apartment by two gentlemen, George and John Dunwoodie, that Jim has recently learned are his cousins. Jim’s great-grandmother was a Dunwoodie, from Barrhead, near Glasgow. George and John graciously volunteered to show us around Glasgow and Barrhead.

We headed out through pretty countryside toward Barrhead, and learned about the former industrial greatness of this area, formerly home to cotton mills, leather works, shipbuilding works, and more. It seems that this area was once rich by virtue of being a corner of the infamous triangle that traded goods from the UK to Africa, transported slaves to the US, and brought raw materials to Scotland for processing. Nowadays all of these industries are gone.

In Barrhead, we saw places where Jim’s Dunwoodie ancestors lived and worked. We also saw the street where their homes had been destroyed by bombs dropped by the Germans during WWII.

We stopped at the home of the aunt of George and John, and enjoyed afternoon tea. Later, on our way back to Glasgow, we visited the estate of the Stirling-Maxwell’s, a branch of the once-powerful Maxwell clan.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

George and John Dunwoodie

Stirling Maxwell estate

Pollok Country park

Stirling Maxwell estate