I’m sure you know what it’s like – you rarely get around to visiting touristy places nearby and to be fair it’s donkey’s years since I’ve lived near Glasgow, but I did spend the first five years of my life there so it was about time I got around to visiting Glasgow Cathedral which is also called the High Kirk of Glasgow and has a Church of Scotland congregation. It’s the oldest cathedral on mainland Scotland and the oldest building in Glasgow. It dates from the late 12th century and is also known as St Mungo’s or St Kentigern’s (one and the same person). His tomb is in the crypt and the kirk features in Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy.
I was impressed with the building although lots of the windows are just plain diamond paned glass. Apparently in the 1800s the powers that were gave a German company the commission to renew the windows with stained glass at huge expense, but within just a few years the glass began to deteriorate badly. I suspect that Prince Albert had something to do with the work going to a German firm, he seems to have seen it as his mission in life to give his country of birth as much economic help as possible. I bet they didn’t get their money back either!
The stone rood screen below is apparently quite unique.
The ceiling is quite impressive.
The modern tapestries below are beautiful but the camera couldn’t do them justice.
The cathedral has a good atmosphere and there was also a very interesting photographic exhibition on when we were there. You can read more about the building here. I must admit though that to me it comes second to St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney which is stunning.
Glasgow’s coat of arms decorates the old lampost outside the cathedral.
There are stained glass windows in the cathedral, but I’ll keep them for another blogpost.
What a stunning building!
Joan,
It’s well worth visiting.
Hi Katrina,
I thoroughly enjoyed your tour, then I was off to the link. As you know, I don’t often have the chance to get inside of buildings that are nearly 10 centuries old, so I love hearing of other people’s experiences. If you do a future post on the stained glass windows, I’d love to know what you thought of The Millennium Window.
Judith,
I plan to ‘do’ the windows later.
Hello –
Yes, the Cathedral goes back to the twelfth century, but, Glasgow began with the arrival of Mungo in the sixth century.
Seamus Conway,
Yes a lot of people seem to think that Glasgow is mainly a Victorian place, with Edinburgh being the historic city. It’s just a pity that there’s not much left of the really old Glasgow but Provands Lordship just across the road from the cathedral is worth a visit too.