Frommer's Scotland 8th Edition - To Parent Directory

Glasgow & the StrathclydeRegion6Glasgow is only 65km (40miles) west of Edinburgh, but there’san amazing contrast between the twocities. Scotland’s economic powerhouseand its largest city (Britain’sthird largest), up-and-coming Glasgowis now the country’s cultural capitaland home to half the population.It has long been famous for ironworksand steelworks; the local shipbuildingindustry produced the Queen Mary,the Queen Elizabeth, and other fabledocean liners.Once polluted and plagued withsome of the worst slums in Europe,Glasgow has been transformed. Urbandevelopment and the decision tolocate the Scottish Exhibition andConference Centre here have broughtgreat changes: Grime is being sandblastedaway, overcrowding has beenreduced, and more open space and lesstraffic congestion mean cleaner air.Glasgow also boasts a vibrant and evenedgy arts scene; it has become one ofthe cultural capitals of Europe.The splendor of the city hasreemerged. John Betjeman and othercritics have hailed Glasgow as “thegreatest surviving example of a Victoriancity.” The planners of the 19thcentury thought on a grand scalewhen they designed the terraces andvillas west and south of the center.Glasgow’s origins are ancient, makingEdinburgh, for all its wealth ofhistory, seem comparatively young.The village that grew up beside a fjord32km (20 miles) from the mouth ofthe River Clyde as a medieval ecclesiasticalcenter began prospering commerciallyin the 17th century. As itgrew, the city engulfed the smallermedieval towns of Ardrie, Renfrew,Rutherglen, and Paisley.Glasgow is part of Strathclyde,a populous district whose origins goback to the Middle Ages. Irishchroniclers wrote of the kingdom ofStratha Cluatha some 1,500 yearsago, and Strathclyde was known tothe Romans, who called its peopleDamnonii. The old capital, Dumbarton,on its high rock, provided a naturalfortress in the days when locals hadto defend themselves against enemytribes.The fortunes of Strathclyde changedin the 18th century, when the Clydeestuary became the gateway to theNew World. Glasgow merchants grewrich on tobacco and then on cotton. Itwas Britain’s fastest-growing regionduring the Industrial Revolution, andGlasgow was known as the SecondCity of the Empire. Until 1996,Strathclyde functioned as a governmententity that included Glasgow,but it’s now broken down into severalnew divisions: the City of Glasgow;Inverclyde, which includes the importantindustrial center of Greenock;and several others.Glasgow is a good gateway forexploring the heart of Burns country,Culzean Castle, and the resorts alongthe Ayrshire coast, an hour away byfrequent train service (see “Side Trips