Eight in the West End

Run time: 49:00

Distance covered: 5.11m (8.22km)

Soundtrack: Orphan X, Gregg Hurwitz

Conditions: warm, cloudy, after the rain

The west end is a nice place to run in all conditions. Even on an overcast, rainy day, there's so much green that everything is still pretty and slightly mysterious. In fact this is one of those runs where the streets are nicer than many of the parks. There are loads of small parks dotted around, even when you don't count the private gardens. That means it's possible to cover a lot of them in one go, which is what I decided to do.

I started to the north and west, at Naseby Park in Broomhill. Like most of these parks, it's a small green square amidst the houses all around and you can see all there is to see in a few minutes. Some nice trees, playpark, people reading on benches.

From there, I headed south to Cross Park, which used to be the grounds of a mansion owned by wine merchant William Lang in the late 19th century. There's still part of a boundary wall that cuts the park in two.

Downhill to Thornwood Park, which is one of those more modern parks created in the space left by something that was there before (in this case disused railway lines). It's nice enough, but like almost all of the newer parks, it lacks soul.

Along Dumbarton Road and into my old stomping grounds. I had a flat in Hayburn Crescent for a couple of years, and it was good to see the neighbourhood hadn't changed too much.

Hayburn Park, at the top of the crescent, is usually crammed with families using the playpark and picnicking in the summer, but it was quiet today. I'm guessing partly because of Coronavirus, but mostly because of the weather.

Across Clarence Drive and over to Lauderdale Park. Another park I had never noticed before despite being in the neighbourhood. That's probably because it's small and tucked away in a cul de sac. 

While I was plotting out my route, I noticed another green space on the map nearby, labelled as Old Station Park. It wasn't on the list from the city council, but I decided to check it out anyway. I'm glad I did. This is another 'space filler' park, in this case developing land vacated by the old Hyndland Station. I found this interesting post about disused stations in the area - I love that stuff. This park has been done pretty well, and the topography of the station makes it more interesting than parks that are just inserted into a vacant city block. It's kind of wonderful that the city has so many parks that even the council can't keep track of all them, I guess.

Back along Hyndland Road towards Dowanhill Park. Nice postcode, but not too much to the park. According to the sign, it dates from 1905, so it looks like inventiveness dropped off a cliff right at the end of the Victorian period, because it feels more modern than that.

It's still a lot more interesting than Mansfield Park (no relation as far as I know to the Jane Austen novel), which is a bog-standard development where they've chucked a playpark and some grass on derelict land vacated by demolition and called it job done. It usually functions more as a kind of town square for the area, with farmers markets and so on.

From there, I had originally planned to head straight back along Dumbarton Road and back up Crow Road to finish back at Cross Park, but I wasn't too tired, so decided to take the more interesting tree-lined sidestreets. 

I had forgotten that this would lead me to Gardner Street, possibly the steepest road in the city. On turning the corner at Lawrie Street I realised my mistake and thought about backtracking. Then, in a sudden rash decision, I decided "Fuck it, I will not be intimidated by a hill." 

About thirty seconds later, I realised I had made a grave mistake. I visited San Francisco last year, and Gardner Street would not be out of place in the City by the Bay.  

It nearly killed me. I was more out of breath than I've been since I started running by the time I made the summit, barely able to keep going around the long curve of Partickhill Road. 

But I made it. Just.