Down by the river - Richmond Park and the Gorbals

Run time: 43:36
Distance covered: 4.71m (7.58km)
Soundtrack: 13 Minutes to the Moon podcast
Conditions: sunny



A loop around from the east to south of the river, finishing up with a home stretch along the Clyde for this one.



Dunn Street (Bridgeton) Park is one of those that would be easy to miss as you wander past. It feels like one of the newer parks, small and functional with a community centre and a playpark. The only idiosyncratic feature is the circle of iron girders. A group of teenagers were gathering like non-socially distant druids. 



Across the river to Richmond Park, or more accurately, about a third of it. It's being redeveloped just now so has been divided by 8-foot wooden hoardings. I've never been inside the park before, so I have no idea what was behind the hoardings, or what's going to be in the future. I'll have to come back and check out parks like this and Sandyhills Park in Shettleston to see what's happened with the redevelopment. In the meantime, there's a nice boating pond and a tree-lined path in the segment that's still open.






Normally, I would have been able to run through the park to the next destination, but the Richmond Wall created an insurmountable barrier, so I was forced to run past the Shawfield greyhound track and along the A730, curving around toward the Southern Necropolis.






I covered this on an earlier run, but since I was passing I did a quick flyby. Less grand than the central Necropolis by the cathedral, it's still an impressive graveyard, opening in 1840 and with a quarter of a million people buried within. I remember reading a while ago about a panic in the fifties concerning a Gorbals Vampire who purportedly made his home in the cemetery.

Back out onto Caledonia Road, and probably the last time it will look like this on a Saturday afternoon.



Gorbals New Park does what it says on the tin. It's more thoughtfully laid out than a lot of the newer parks, and there's a nice view of the Alexander Greek Thomson Church at the western end.





While scouting out the route, I noticed a Gorbals Rose Garden which wasn't on the City Council list, so decided to swing by to see what it was like. It has a sign and though small, it's more of a park than some on the list, so it may be another example of a park the council has forgotten about.




Looking into the history of the plot, it was the former site of the Vennie, where kids from the tower blocks in the Gorbals assembled an adventure playground in the fifties. The rose garden is looking good, though I have to admit if I was a 12 year old kid, I would rather have a zip line.

Finished up by heading back to close the loop across the Kings Bridge and along the Clyde Walkway, which was bustling. It definitely feels like lockdown is over.







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