Saint Mungo, Saint Kentigern, Saint Enoch and Glasgow.

Two new murals in Glasgow city centre have been getting a lot of attention. These modern depictions of Saint Mungo and his mother, Saint Enoch, have been painted by Glasgow-based Australian street artist Smug on High Street and nearby George Street. This new perspective on two saints associated with the city made me seek out the stories behind these characters.

Murals of a mother and child, and a man contemplating a bird...or is it St Enoch and St Mungo?

Saint Mungo, Patron Saint of Glasgow.

Glasgow bus shelter

Here is the bird that never flew,

here is the tree that never grew, 

here is the bell that never rang,

here is the fish that never swam.

The Glasgow coat of arms in one form or another is dotted about all over the city - from adorning the sides of Victorian bridges to modern bus shelters. The salmon with a ring in its mouth, the tree, the bell and the bird all tell stories of the city's patron saint, Saint Mungo. Almost 1500 years ago he established his church just north of the River Clyde, and over time the city of Glasgow built up around this site. The words of Glasgow's motto "Let Glasgow Flourish" come from one of his early sermons, more fully rendered as "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word."

Glasgow coat of arms in a stained glass window at Glasgow Cathedral

Also known as Kentigern, Mungo was the nickname he was given as a child when under the tutelage of Saint Serf, in Fife. "Mungo" derives from the Gaelic Mo Choë, taken to mean "My Dear". I think you would agree that this is a more affectionate name than Kentigern, which means "high lord".

Glasgow coat of arms adorning a bin

In medieval times Kentigern was venerated as the local saint, with pilgrimages regularly undertaken to his tomb, which still lies in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral. His death in the early years of the 7th century is recorded in contemporary records (the Welsh Annals) but what is known about his life comes from two 12th century biographies. The mixture of fable and truth in these tellings is therefore hard to unpick, but still informs us of how people in that time wanted to picture their saint.

More recently we have a contemporary imagining of Saint Mungo, in a mural painted on the side of a tenement on High Street in Glasgow, facing up towards the cathedral where his tomb lies. This tells us how we want to imagine the legendary founding father of the city, with Mungo seen as an ordinary man, a bit bedraggled, maybe even a homeless man, benignly smiling down on the robin from one of his stories. The discrete halo behind his head tells us of his saintly nature.

Saint Enoch

To know Saint Mungo's story, you need to go back to his mother, Teneu. In the 6th century, when Scotland was a collection of disparate fiefdoms, she was daughter of King Lleuddun or Loth, who may have given his name to the Lothians where he lived. Loth also appears in Arthurian legends as the father of Sir Gawain. There are very few ancient hill forts in Scotland where we know who lived on them, but Traprain Law in Lothian is one of them. It was home to King Loth, and his daughter, Teneu.

There are different stories of her life, but a recurrent tale is that of her rape by Welsh prince Owain. When she discovers that she is pregnant, her father punishes her, the victim of this crime, and sentences her to death. She is hurled down the cliffs at Traprain Law, the hill fort in East Lothian where they lived.

Miraculously she is found to have survived, and is exiled, cast adrift in a coracle upon the River Forth. She washes up in Fife, where she is taken in by the community of Saint Serf at Culross. It is here that her son Kentigern was born, and given the nickname of Mungo, my dear one or beloved one, by Saint Serf.

Serf lived in the first half of the 6th century, and stories of his life stretch from his being the pope for seven years, to him killing a dragon with his staff in the town of Dunning. He is widely credited with establishing the religious community in Culross (pronounced Coo-riss), a picturesque town still made up of many 17th and 18th century buildings with their distinctive crow-step gables.

Culross, Fife

Teneu and Kentigern grew up here, with Kentigern studying under Serf, and some of the miracles that feature in the Glasgow coat of arms took place during his childhood here. 

St Enoch's church beside St Enoch's hotel and station, early 20th century

Later venerated as a saint, Saint Teneu's name became corrupted as Saint Enoch. In medieval times there was apparently a chapel near to her supposed burial place at modern day St Enoch's Square. The later St Enoch's church pictured above was demolished in the early 20th century. Where the grand St Enoch's station and hotel once stood, there now stands the bland St Enoch's shopping centre. I'm sure it's how she would have wanted to be remembered.

St Enoch shopping centre

The mural of St Enoch, in modern garb, which has now been painted on the side of a tenement on George Street has won a lot of love. She is feeding or comforting young Kentigern, whilst a robin looks on. Robins have a lot of tales told about them in folklore, and early Christian beliefs. Some tales tell of the robin getting its red breast from drops of blood spilled from Jesus as the bird tried to remove the thorns from his crown from harming him. The robin was seen as a storm-cloud bird in Norse times, associated with Thor. In Celtic folklore, harming a robin was bad luck, and any injury to a robin, would soon befall the one committing it. Robins also feature in the miracles performed by Saint Mungo.

Mural of St Enoch, by Smug

Saint Mungo

Mural of Saint Mungo on High Street, Glasgow

By the age of 25 Kentigern/Mungo had finished his training with Serf in Culross. Christianity was a new religion for the people of Scotland, with early missionaries Saint Ninian and Columba spreading the word. He set out on his missionary work along the banks of the River Clyde. The story of his life goes that his first task was to go to the house of Fergus, a holy man who lived at Kernach. Fergus died the night that Mungo arrived, and respecting the man's last wishes he took his body by a cart hitched to two wild bulls, to be buried at a place called Cathures that had previously been consecrated by Ninian. 

The hearse of Fergus, on the roof of the Blacader Aisle in Glasgow Cathedral, which once housed a shrine to Fergus

Here in about 550AD, in a green place beside the Molendinar Burn, which Mungo referred to as "glas cau" or green valley he established his church. The site today is where Glasgow Cathedral still stands, and the burn is also still there, though culverted underneath Wishart Street, behind the cathedral. 

Glasgow Cathedral

Mungo preached here for 13 years, before being driven out by the pagan King Morken of Strathclyde. He then traveled to Cumbria and Wales. When King Morken was overthrown by King Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde, Mungo was invited back to Glasgow and appointed Archbishop of Strathclyde. His church became the centre of a growing community that would eventually become the city of Glasgow.

Tomb of St Mungo in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral

To be declared a saint, miracles have to be uncovered in your life. Later bishops keen to declare the sanctity of their founding father told the stories of Mungo that we know from the city's coat of arms.

The bird that never flew - St Serf had tamed a pet robin, and it was killed by some of Mungo's classmates who tried to blame its demise on him. As he took it in his hands, and prayed over the robin, it came back to life and flew to St Serf. As Karine Polwart put it, robins are symbolically "the birds that mind hearth and family" so I am glad that we've a wee robin as part of our city's story.

The tree that never grew - One night Mungo was left in charge of the holy fire in the monastery at Culross. Once he had fallen asleep, his jealous fellow students put out the fire to get him into trouble. On waking, he broke off some cold branches of a hazel tree, and praying over them they burst into flame.

The bell that never rang - The bell was one used by Mungo, possibly given to him by the pope. A handbell was commonly used in Celtic churches to call people to prayer. In 1450 John Stewart, the first Lord Provost of Glasgow left an endowment for a "St Mungo's bell" to be purchased, and rung through the city for people to pray for him. This bell was rung out for over 100 years afterwards, and although it no longer exists, a replacement bought in 1641 can be seen in the city's People's Palace.

The fish that never swam - If you could accept the burning hazel branch and the robin resuscitation, you will like this one. The ring in the fish's mouth was a gift from King Rhydderch Hael to his wife Queen Languoreth. She gave it to a knight, and the king suspecteded she was being unfaithful. On a hunting party he took the ring from the knight whilst he slept and threw it into the River Clyde. Returning home the king demanded the ring from his wife, threatening her with execution if she could not produce it. The queen sought it from the knight, who did not know where it was. She then confessed all to Mungo. Mungo sent one of his monks to fish in the Clyde, and the first salmon pulled out of the river was found to have the ring in its mouth, which was returned to the queen. It's a good story, so good in fact that it has been recycled in the life of Saint Asaph. It also bears a lot of similarities to the plot used by Alexander Dumas, where he has his Three Musketeers rush to London to retrieve the diamond studs which Queen Anne of France has given to her lover the Duke of Buckingham, to show her king that she still has them. 

Mural of Saint Mungo by Smug on High Street, Glasgow

Versions of Mungo 

In the early days of the church in Glasgow, the tomb of Saint Mungo and associated relics attracted many pilgrims. They were seeking salvation and cures, and in return they provided funds for the growing church. Glasgow Cathedral was one of very few medieval cathedrals in Scotland to survive the Reformation, and it has continued as a Protestant church to this day. This means that the Catholic saints and relics are not part of the worship in the cathedral. The tomb of Saint Mungo is therefore rather downplayed in the cathedral today, a modern tapestry thrown over it and a plain cross on top. Also a slightly dour information board beside it avoids glorifying any fake prophets. 

"...many pilgrims followed a stage-managed route to get here....Their offerings helped to swell church funds and the cathedral developed around the tomb. Stories about St Mungo are largely the creation of enthusiastic biographers in the 1100s. Important saints were promoted by the church to bolster the faith of believers. Mungo's legendary deeds were exploited during the early days of Alba, the unified Scottish kingdom in th elate 9th century. This was repeated, 500 years later, to reinforce the identity of the Scottish church after the Wars of Independence."

So within the cathedral we are cautioned to be wary of religion being used for political or economic purposes. As if! 

In fairness Mungo's miracles, do seem slightly mundane in the grand scheme of things, more like conjurers tricks. Not for him the glory of curing the blind and infirm. Although the deeds of St Mungo and St Enoch are generally only vaguely known about, the coat of arms of the city has been used for centuries. The thrusting, modern, industrial Glasgow could show outsiders its coat of arms, linking it back to an origin story many centuries before. 

Coat of arms on Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall opened in 1990, and has one of the largest of Glasgow's many coats of arms for public consumption. The tree, the fish and the bird link Glasgow to a green and leafy past. The motto, "Let Glasgow Flourish" seems to have a slightly different meaning when clipped of its "...by the preaching of the word." Instead of requiring religious duty to grow the city, it becomes a more declamatory. Stop holding us back, let Glasgow flourish.

Kelvinbridge, Glasgow

A version of the coat of arms used by the University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow was established in 1451 as part of the cathedral complex on High Street, and uses a version of the city's coat of arms. The university mace and an open book compliment the tree, the bird, the bell and the fish. 

The new murals of Enoch and Mungo are a surprise as they do not show the old history, but give us a modern day mother and child, a modern day middle-aged, and bearded man. The robin and the halos give clues as to who they are, but these founders of Glasgow are average, ordinary people. I quite like this version of the Glasgow story.

Bridgegate, Saltmarket and the Glasgow Fish Market

District 14, Glasgow

Saltmarket from Bridgegate, by Thomas Annan. 1868

In late 19th century Glasgow the area bounded by Stockwell Street and Saltmarket, the Trongate to the north and the Clyde to the south was referred to as "District 14". In 1889 a report by Glasgow's Philosophical Society described this area as having 7,150 people living in 1,308 houses and sharing 100 water closets. Of the 99 common lodging houses in the city, 63 of them were in this small district. The city's medical officer in a report on the area described the slums that people here were living in as "filthy beyond measure....High Street, Saltmarket, Briggait are all sanitary evils....For years the population of  many thousands has been added to Glasgow by immigrants without a single house being built to receive them."

A correspondent for the Glasgow Herald complained about the "public houses...doing a roaring trade". Managing to then offend several diverse groups of people at once he continues "A graphic sketch of the conditions around the High Street, Saltmarket, Bridgegate and Trongate, between the hours of midnight on Saturday and six o'clock on Sunday morning would astonish many of our featherbed philanthropists who devote so much thought into bettering the conditions of Australian savages."

So what made my great-great-great grandparents move to this area at that time, and stay here for the next 50 years to bring up their family?

Medieval Glasgow

The Bridgegate (or Briggait) is one of the oldest streets in Glasgow, leading to the first major bridge over the River Clyde and then south towards the Gorbals village. “Gait” is from the old Scots word for “the way to", rather than meaning “gate” in the modern sense.

In the 1100s the street later known as the Bridgegate was a track leading to a simple bridge, referred to in William Wallace's time as a "brig o' tree" (wooden bridge). In 1297 Wallace allegedly rode from Ayr and defeated a small English force in the Battle of the Bell O' the Brae near to Glasgow Cathedral, at the top of what is now High Street. Blind Harry tells how Wallace brought his forces to "Glasgow bryg, that byyggit was of tre", dividing his forces with some going straight up High Street (known at one time as "Bell O' the Brae") to Glasgow Castle, and the others coming around from the rear, up Drygate and across the bridge over the Molendinar Burn. Drygate is often called the oldest street in Glasgow, pre-dating the cathedral. Druids apparently used to worship on the hill of Fir Park, now the necropolis. The word"dry" is a pagan word, of German origin, meaning priest. So although it is known now as the home of a brewery, Drygate is the "priests' way".

Statute in Glasgow commemorating William Wallace's Battle of the Bell O' the Brae

The wooden bridge over the Clyde was replaced by the first stone bridge across the river in the time of Bishop Rae (1335-1367), around 1350, at the bottom of what is now Stockwell Street, called Glasgow Bridge for around 500 years. Stockwell Street is named after a well with a wooden stock that once stood here. Prior to 1345 the street was called Fishergait, as it led to the salmon fishers' village on the banks of the Clyde.

In later times one of Glasgow's first music halls, The Scotia Variety Theatre, opened on Stockwell Street. Harry Lauder made his first stage appearances here. In 1895 high unemployment in the area meant that the Scotia Theatre (and also the Gaiety on Sauchiehall Street) was operating a soup kitchen during the day to provide some food to local residents.

Later this music hall became the Metropole Theatre, managed at the start of the 20th century by Arthur Jefferson. His son used to help him out on occasion in the theatre, but made his own stage debut around the corner in The Panopticon, at the age of sixteen. Travelling to America in the same ship as Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karno's vaudeville troupe, this young man made his name there, as Stan Laurel.

Map of central Glasgow from about 1547

In the above map from the 16th century Glasgow Cross was then called Mercat Cross (market cross). This was where the tron, or weighing beam, was found; where goods were weighed and taxed. Gallowgate led to the gallows, which were out near where Barrack Street now stands, until they were moved in 1765. On the map above Saltmarket is called Walkergait, from the waulkers, that worked here, no doubt preparing their cloth with “waulking songs” which are now only associated with Scottish island communities. The later name “Saltmarket” came from 1650, when the market selling salt for cuing salmon operated here.

The Saltmarket and Bridgegate became fashionable areas for the city's wealthy merchants to set up home. In 1650 Cromwell stayed here when he visited Scotland. In 1759 a certain Agnes Craig was born on Saltmarket, fifth child of respected physician Andrew Craig, she is better know under her married name, Agnes MacLehose, or through the alias she and Robert Burns communicated – Clarinda. Around 1710 the city's first post office was on Saltmarket, in 1763 James Watt ran a shop here and Peter Tait's Glasgow Journal, forerunner to the Glasgow Herald, was run from number 11. Entertainment on Saltmarket came from the old show grounds and circus building near the court buildings. It was also home to the City and Adelphi theatres.

Merchants' Hall, Bridgegate

Originally the Bridgegate (or Briggait) was lined with the mansions of wealthy merchants. It was therefore a natural place for them to build their original Merchants’ Hall (or Hospital as it was known initially, in the old sense of the word, a place for giving out alms). Built in the early 1600s on the Bridgegate, it was re-built in 1659 on the same site. Designed by Sir William Bruce, the distinctive tower, which was completed six years later, is all that survives from that building. The ground floor of the Merchants’ Hall here initially provided apartments for pensioners of the hospital, with the large hall being found on the first floor. In the late 18th century the ground floor was converted into four shops, and houses to be let out for rent.

Engraving of the Merchants' Hall of 1659 on the Bridgegate, the clock tower all that still remains

As the area became increasingly less salubrious, the Merchants House of Glasgow planned to build a new hall elsewhere and their building was largely demolished in 1818, replaced with tenements on the same site. As part of this deal, signed in 1817 for the sale of their building and land for £7500, the steeple was to be preserved and any tenements built were to be restricted in height to allow it still to be admired. The steeple is 164 feet tall, and still topped with the emblem of the Merchants’ House, the ship on a globe.

Lord Dean of the Merchants' House at the time, James Ewing was not shy about explaining why he felt it was time for the organisation to move away from their old building.

"A very material change, however, has since taken place...The Bridgegate, which was then the most respectable and fashionable part of the Town, has now become the residence chiefly of the inferior classes, with an awkward access, and a still more objectionable vicinity."

The arrival of a public slaughterhouse on Saltmarket in 1744, bleachfields and court buildings reflected the changing use of the area over the years. Over time the many fine mansions had been sub-divided or replaced by tenement buildings, housing the workers required for the new industries sprouting up in the city. The well to-do were heading for the clean air in the west of the growing city.

Bridgegate from Stockwell, about 1830, showing the tenements that replaced the Merchants' Hall, with the familiar tower above

Irish-Scots

In the 18th century immigration from Ireland to the west of Scotland was not unusual, many of those coming to Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow at that time were skilled cotton workers, largely from Protestant communities in the north of Ireland. In Glasgow many of these people settled in the Calton area, centre for handloom weaving at that time.

Over the next hundred years the numbers of Irish immigrants would rise steeply, just as workers poured into the city from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland. Around the mid-1700s it is widely quoted that Glasgow had only 39 Catholics recorded as living in the city, but 43 anti-Catholic clubs. In the early 19th century many people arriving on the Broomielaw from Ireland were escaping poverty and starvation, and took on some of the lowest paid, often physical work in the city, particularly working on the bustling docks, building roads, railways and canals or in mining. The area around Saltmarket and Bridgegate provided some of the cheapest accommodation, from lodging houses to crowded tenements. After the Irish famine of 1845, the numbers of people arriving in Glasgow rose dramatically, at a time when Glasgow was one of the most rapidly growing cities in the world. In 1831 the population of Glasgow was 220,000. By 1861 there were 460,000 Glaswegians.

St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow

The Catholic Church set in place the first Catholic priest in Glasgow since the Reformation in the early 1800s and by 1816 work had begun on St Andrew's Cathedral on a prominent site by the Clyde, just along from the bottom of Stockwell Street. Much of the funding for this building came from weekly subscriptions from some of the city's poorest people. The same criticisms that are levelled against recent immigrants to the city were raised against the impoverished Irish residents of the city at that time. Letters in the Glasgow Herald and sermons from Church of Scotland pulpits of the day complain about diseases they are bringing to the city (typhus outbreaks were common in the cramped and insanitary housing conditions), about crime and drunkeness caused by these new arrivals, and criticising them for coming to Scotland to claim Poor Law assistance and charity, even though as new arrivals in the city they were not entitled to many of these resources. When Sir Archibald Alison gave his inaugural address as Rector of the University of Glasgow in 1850, he choose to criticise the religion of many of these new arrivals in his speech titled "The Intolerance of the Catholic Church Through the Ages". I imagine Polish, Roma and Muslim immigrants to Britain would recognise the atmosphere being created by these pronouncements.

Orangemen from the old country could also get together with like minded people on arriving in Glasgow. The Brunswick Loyal Orange Lodge was the first one set up in Glasgow, in 1813. Many of the first Orange Lodges were set up by Glaswegians returning from fighting in Ireland as part of the Fencibles forces, set up to combat the 1798 rebellion by the United Irishmen, led by (the Protestant) Wolfe Tone. The first Orange walk in the city is recorded by John Burrowes in his book "The Irish" as taking place on 12th July 1821, and ending in a "fracas" near Glasgow Cross, where the statue of King Billy used to sit. Over the years many more inter-religious flashpoints would occur, but much of the divide was less overt. It was widely known that certain factories or shipyards would not employ Catholics, and on the other side of my family, when my great-grandfather came to Glasgow from Ayrshire, I have no doubts that his standing in his local Masonic Lodge helped him into work, and promotion, at Harland and Wolff's shipyards in Govan.

Bridgegate or "Briggait"

By 1824 an “Old Clothes Market” had been set up in Scanlon’s Close south of the Bridgegate and the street was soon lined with shops and barrows selling old clothes. The clothes market, known colloquially as "Paddy's Market" due to the large numbers of Irish people living and working here, can be seen on this map of 1847, that pre-dates the current Briggait building. The merchants’ steeple here is at the northern end of Guildry Court, a short street with tenements on either side (click to expand). The streets were soon lined by shops, largely run by the new new Irish immigrants.

Map of Bridgegate, 1847

By the end of the 19th century the tenements of the Saltmarket were notorious for their dilapidated state and the crowded, unhealthy conditions. At that time the housing still followed the medeival alignment. On Saltmarket tenements of various ages lined the street, with closes extending perpendicular to the street, and further rows of houses found behind, where we would expect a back green to be behind a tenement now. These were some of the worst slums in Britain. This led the city improvement trust to demolish many of the old 17th century buildings here. The current tenements on Saltmarket date from the 1880s, with their crow-steps, gables and chimneys copying the style of the demolished buildings.

The close at 128 Saltmarket, where my great-grandfather lived

The arrival of the Union Railway in 1864 again drastically altered the area with the slaughterhouses and old clothes market building being swept away (though the market lived on) and an engine shed being built where King Street car park not sits. The line came across the Clyde from the south, over the Bridgegate and swung left towards St Enoch Station, across Stockwell Street. New tenement buildings filled in some gaps, but the area became more of a backwater than before.

Closes at 122 Saltmarket, where Partick Donnelly lived

Writing in 1873 JFS Gordon in his book "Glasghu facies" complains about the changing face of the Bridgegate. He bemoans the fact that the "Tobacco lords, princely merchants and fashionable ladies" have moved on, "their places are filled with a new and strange race of traders from The Emerald Isle". He continues that the"stately mansions have either been demolished, or are turned into Whisky Shops, Ham-Stores, Old-Clothes-Emporiums, Brokers'-Stalls and common Lodging-Houses." Reporting that there were many Irish lodging houses on the Bridgegate, he mentions the The Londonderry Hotel "for the Orangemen", whilst the nearby The Emerald Isle tavern is "for the Papists". At this time he comments also that the street was rightly known “for the quality of its tripe, potted meat and cow heel”, for its public houses, but notorious also for being wild on a Saturday night. The reason his writing at this time grabs my attention, is it was the time my ancestors were living in the Saltmarket and the Bridgegate. The year he was writing, 1873, was also when a new trade arrived in the area, the fish market was built on the Bridgegate.

From 1873 book mentioned above "only remaining
wooden houses in Saltmarket", including number 122

The Bridgegate Fish Market

Bridgegate about 1904, looking towards Saltmarket

Glasgow fish market Clydeside frontage, with winged sea horses at the top

In 1873 the fish market was built, with a grand French Renaissance style frontage facing the Clyde on East Clyde Street, designed by architects Clarke and Bell. The cast iron galleried, glass-roofed market hall within served as the city’s fish market for over 100 years, until 1977. To the east of the market hall at that time still stood rows of tenements running perpendicular to Bridgegate, including Guildry Court.

Guildry Court viewed from the south, the Merchants' Steeple at the top

The fish market had been a success, and was extended in size in 1886, with a low, utilitarian hall pushing eastwards, towards the tenements on the western side of Guildry Court. Then again in 1903 further expansion was required and the western block of Guildry Cort tenements were demolished. In 1914 the final addition to the market saw the last block of tenements demolished and replaced with a two storey block of offices on Bridgegate, with a corner turret. The Merchants’ Steeple was again all that remained of the old landscape, now with the fish market built completely around it.

1897 mapwhen one block of Guildry Court tenements remained

On the 1897 map above one row of tenements remains on the block, at the eastern side of the fish market, noteworthy to me as my great-great grandad lived here and his son-in-law ran a confectioners on the Bridgegate in the ground floor shop. Also of note there are seven public houses marked on this one block in 1897, with many more nearby.

My great-great-great-granny Ann Donnelly, in the shop at Bridgegate about 1902

Glasgow city crest, flanked by two over-sized fish on the wall of the fish market

Inside the main fish market hall in the 1960s

Building phases on the Glasgow Fish Market

Glasgow fish market building as it looks today, the distinctive Merchants' Steeple poking up through the roof

Merchants' steeple above the winged sea-horses of the fish market building today

"Peter, I Will Make You Fish Merchant to Men"

Patrick Donnelly (also known as Peter), was born in Roscommon, in Ireland, in 1826. Like many other Irishmen and woman he moved to Scotland shortly afterwards, where he married an Ann McCartney born Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, the daughter of handloom weavers. In 1871 and 1880 he is recorded as living at 122 Saltmarket, which at that time was one of the last remaining wooden tenement buildings on the street (as mentioned above). Shortly afterwards it was replaced by the sandstone building that stands there now and the closes behind it largely cleared.

Like many Irishmen that moved to the area, and many immigrants coming to the city ever since, unable to get into the closed shop of local industries, he opened his own business. In 1871 he was a “dealer in fruit”, 1880 “general dealer", running shops in the area at this time.

The block between 67 and 127 Bridgegate today

Patrick (known as Peter) Donnelly's son, Peter Donnelly (usually called Patrick), was born in 1860. In 1880 he was living at 122 Saltmarket with his parents. He married an Annie McLuskey in 1880, who was born in Paisley to Irish parents in 1861. Peter was at times a tinsmith (a tinker), a labourer and worked later in a china wholesalers shop with Annie for a while at 107 Bridgegate.

128 Saltmarket today, 122 to the right

In 1883 his you family were living at 128 Saltmarket and by 1885 he was running a confectioners shop at 131 Bridgegate, just east of the fish market entrance. In 1892, leaving his young family at home, he left for Philidelphia and died there 2 years later from TB, leaving Annie to bring up her children alone.

Register of businesses showing Peter Donnelly renting a shop to run as a confectioners in 1885

Annie’s father Patrick (also known as Peter) McCluskey came from Ballycastle in County Antrim. In 1861, not long after arriving from Ireland, he was working in Ayrshire as a coal miner. He then moved to Paisley, working as a labourer and a bricklayer. In 1881 he is living at 109 Bridgegate.

In 1884 he is recorded as a “provisions dealer/victualler”, renting a flat and shop at 139 Bridgegate. The flat he is renting faced onto the Bridgegate in front of the Merchants' Steeple and was later demolished as the fish market expanded. My granny always described him as the "first butter, ham and egg merchant" in the west of Scotland and at this time it is how some shops across the city began describing themselves. He and his family seem to have a hand in a few shops, with other McLuskey's running butter, ham and egg shops on Bridgegate and further west on Stobcross Road. A couple of years later, the successful fish market catches his eye and by the mid-1880s he is recorded as a fish merchant, running one of the shops on the Bridgegate just next to the main fish market entrance.

 In 1891 he is living with his daughter Annie and her children at 1 Guildry Court, and he and his daughter are both working as fishmongers, living practically above the shop in what must have been pungent accommodation. As well as her father Peter McCluskey, her younger brother Patrick (in a break from tradition, known as Paddy) 17 years her younger was staying there, as were her children Peter S. Donnelly (always known as Peter, born 1883), his big sister Annie and two younger siblings. Another daughter, Rose, died in infancy, like many other children of that time.

10 years later Peter S. Donnelly had moved out, Paddy was 22 and working as a “vanman” ferrying goods around, and the younger children Katie and John Francis were still at home. Daughter Annie was now married to John McGinty, a bookie and in later years their daughter (Annie McGinty, always known as Annie McGinty, even after she became Annie Taylor) continued the family tradition, working as a bookie's runner. One of her two sons, Kenny Taylor, eventually worked as a cooper but in his younger days was a decent footballer. Before he played as a winger for Clyde FC he had got himself into the papers for managing to score three goals direct from corners as a player in the Juniors.

From 1896-1898, Peter McCluskey continues running a fish merchant’s shop at 151 Bridgegate and the family are all staying in a flat at 137 Bridgegate. Annie continued this trade after her father's death, running the shop for at least the next 20 years. Her fish merchant's shop at 151 Bridgegate was not actually in the old Briggait fish market which was number 141, but next door, between it and the current Clutha Vaults pub. At this time there were 9 shop fronts either side of the Bridgegate entrance to the fish market. These were all fish merchants and fish curers, some also specialising in rabbit and game. Few of the shops here seem to have been run by women and I get the impression from my granny's tales that she wasn't a woman to mess about. She was still living at 137 Bridgegate until 1903, when these last remaining tenements on the block were demolished to further expand the fish market building.

Whilst her son Peter and his young family were living at 153 Stockwell Street in the newly built tenement from 1905, in 1903 Annie and her family had moved just around the corner to 132 Stockwell Street, a few doors south of 116 Stockwell Street, where the Metropole Theatre stood (roughly where the current Scotia Bar sits). Perhaps a teenage Stan Laurel took her ticket at the door of his dad's theatre as she went inside. They lived here for at least the next 10 years, and in time various family members gravitated a couple of hundred yards south to spend the rest of their days in the Gorbals. On researching this branch of my family they seem to have been a very tight-knit group, marrying people from the same few nearby streets and never moving more than a couple of streets away over a 50 year period. Other nieces and nephews married into the Corrigan family that still run fish-shops in the city, or to the Dunne's who ran a haulage business from Bridgegate into the 1960s.

132 Stockwell Street now lies under the modern Holiday Inn Express, south of the Scotia Bar

153 Stockwell Street today

Religion was never spoken about to me as any great bone of contention, but it was always an important part of my granny's family identity. Her father narrowly avoided being murdered in 1920 after relatives he had been visiting a few days earlier in Ireland were burned out of their home by Black and Tans. He had started down the road of training for the priesthood before he changed tack and opened a shop as a dentist in the Gorbals in the early 1900s (you did not need a dental degree in those days). To his mother, fish-merchant Annie Donnelly, religion was important and she traveled widely during her lifetime, three times to Rome and once to the Holy Lands.

Although my granny married a protestant without anybody batting an eyelid, she told me about her aunt, another Annie Donnelly, who stayed above the Citizens Theatre on Gorbals Main Street. After having seven children (Kathleen, Mary, John, Ann, Peter, Alec and Helen), her mother-in-law "stole away her 8th child", when he was only 3 days old, swearing that she was going to have one grandchild brought up a Protestant - he stands out among his siblings as being named William.

Today

Wandering about these streets today, it is an unecessarily neglected and shabby part of town, with gap sites and scrappy car parks lying undeveloped, right in the centre of one of Britain's largest cities. The closure of Paddy's Market nine years ago was meant to part of a wider regeneration scheme in the area. The imagination of the city council on redevelopment does not seem to stretch much beyond shopping malls when it comes to granting planning permission, and as these seem to be becoming yesterday's idea, no grand vision to re-invigorate a once wild and bustling part of town seems to be on the table.

The old fish market building. 137 Bridgegate would have been in front of the steeple,
151 to the right of the Briggait entrance

The old fish market building, now branded as The Briggait, seems to be thriving as a home for visual artists and cultural organisations, and regularly hosts exhibitions and food festivals in the old market hall. Glasgow's current fish market shares a building in Blochairn with the city's wholesale fruit market, and is a decidedly functional place.

On trying to find out more about these relatives I re-discovered the place where Annie Donnelly, who ran her shop at the fish market for so many years, had been buried in St Kentigern's cemetery. Her brother, Patrick McLuskey, and later Annie herself lived with my great-grandad Peter Donnelly in their later years and as they are all so fondly remembered by many family members, it was nice to get a headstone back in place on their grave. Gone but not forgotten.

Sources other than my own researches on national records and Post Office directories,
The History of Merchants' House, Glasgow - JM Reid
Irish: the Remarkable Saga of a Nation and a City - John Burrowes
Glasgow Streetnames - Carol Foreman
Public Sculpture of Glasgow - Ray MacKenzie

Me and The MacPhees, a Lochaber History.

I was recently up at the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe with my family. It reminded me of all the old stories that my granny told me about her relative that used to be the innkeeper there. She always said that it was him that put up the original "No Campbells" sign in the entrance of the hotel, harking back to the Campbells' infamous role in the massacre of Glencoe. As usual with my granny's stories, once you start digging into them, they all turn out to be true. So here is a wee look at two of my relatives that she used to talk about; Donald MacPhee that ran the Clachaig Inn, and Ewen MacPhee, the "last outlaw".

Listen To Your Granny

When I was a teenager, growing up in Glasgow, I started camping and hillwalking with friends in Campsie Hills. Once we had the bug we walked the West Highland Way a couple of times and I got to know the stretch of Scotland between Glasgow and Fort William very well. We often hitch-hiked up the A82 at the weekend, pitching our tents in Glen Douglas at Inverbeg, or up to Glen Etive and Glencoe, regularly camping near the Kingshouse Hotel or the Clachaig Inn. 

My granny as a young woman, Catherine "Renee" Donnelly

This led my granny to start telling me stories about our family from up that way. Brought up in the Gorbals, she was born in 1915 and talked about her many relatives in great detail. She told stories from a century ago as if they had happened the week before. Her stories were so detailed, that as a teenager I spent some time with her trying to make notes on all these colourful relatives. Looking at my old notes now I have scribbled mini-biographies of about 200 people, across five generations and four continents. 

When I spent a summer working in Toronto in the 1990s, she arranged for her "cousins" there to put me up for 2 months, which they happily did. When I plotted out all these relatives on a family tree I found that my Canadian cousins were actually my fifth cousins through my Kilmonivaig great-great-great grandfather Alexander MacPhee. 

Cille Choirill

Once I was able to drive we went on a couple of runs up to Spean Bridge with my granny, to places she remembered visiting family when she was younger. One of the most evocative places she led us to was Cille Choirill church, the site of a Catholic church since the 15th century, with beautiful views down Glen Spean. Here we found the gravestone of Alexander MacPhee I mentioned above. The details on this about his family, and later researches that I made confirmed that my granny's recollections were usually absolutely spot on. 

Cille Choirill is worth visiting if you are passing along this way. In the graveyard are buried the Gaelic poets from the 16th and 17th century, Dòmhnall Mac Fhionnlaidh nan Dàn and Iain Lom.

Cille Choirill church and Alexander MacPhee's gravestone, above Roy Bridge

My granny died over 20 years ago now, but I have carried on trying to find out more about these people, as their stories are also the history of the Scotland they inhabited. Farming people who were forced off the land, or left it to seek their fortune elsewhere as new industries grew up. They gravitated to the cities, or emigrated to find work and start new lives.

Thomas Annan's photograph of children playing at No. 46 Saltmarket, in the 1870s

In the 1880s my granny's father was born in Saltmarket in Glasgow and her mother in Partick around the same time. Like many people in the growing city of Glasgow at that time, her grandparents were migrants to the city; from rural Ireland on one side and rural Scotland on the other. Her father's family had left Roscommon and Leitrim in Ireland to come to Glasgow, but the parents of her mother, Bella MacPhee, had arrived in Partick from the Highlands. 

Bella's father, John MacPhee, was born near Spean Bridge, just north of Fort William, in 1857. Her mother, Kate Henderson, was the daughter of a ploughman in Alness, Ross Shire. She came to Glasgow as a teenager, working initially as a domestic servant in Partick. 

Kate Henderson with her husband, John MacPhee, and their children, Ina and Bella, my great-granny
(Her sister Ina worked as a hatmaker in the early 1900s, in case it wasn't obvious)

John MacPhee was working as a hotel servant in Banff in 1888 before he joined Kate in Glasgow and married. He was the third oldest of at least 10 siblings, and several of his brothers and sisters worked in hotels and as housekeepers. His sister Betsy was a housekeeper in Ardlui, Maisie in the Kingshouse Hotel and the Black Corries Lodge. His brother Donald MacPhee, 14 years his junior, spent the last 15 years of his life running the Clachaig Inn.

MacPhee, McPhee, McFee, MacFie, Mac a'Phi

My granny seemed to go by three different names. She had her married name. Most of her old friends still referred to her by her maiden name, Donnelly. On top of that, she thought of herself by her mother's family name - MacPhee. She would proudly tell me that we were MacPhees, "tinker folk". McPhee is still a common name in the travelling community. The word "tinker" though often used pejoratively, actually just derives from "tinsmith" as many travellers made a living going from place to place repairing metal pans and utensils. 

The MacPhee name is originally connected with the island of Colonsay, and McFies are recorded to have fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn. The MacPhees (gaelic Mac a'Phi) were traditionally the keepers of the records for the Lord of the Isles, Scottish nobility associated with the MacDonalds until King James IV ended their rule in 1493. After the fall of the Lordship of the Isles the MacPhees dispersed, with many becoming rootless and known as itinerant tinsmiths. 

Other MacPhee clansmen settled in the Cameron lands of Lochaber, where my family hail from. There the MacPhees were followers of "Cameron of Lochiel".  In the 1700s there are several MacPhees renting land around Glendessary and Lochiel. In 1718 a John MacPhee is renting land here. He had two sons, John and Ewen, who "sustained considerable losses at the hands of Cumberland's forces after Culloden"1.

In 1745 one of the pipers welcoming Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan was a Lochaber MacFie and later that year more were fighting on the right flank at Culloden with Cameron. After Culloden, retribution for those on the Jacobite side meant many lost land and there are records of two MacPhees who resorted to cattle stealing in order to survive, forming marauding bands with others after 1755. 

In 1750 another MacPhee in this area was an innkeeper, Ewen MacPhee, recorded as the Changekeeper (or Innkeeper) for an inn in Erracht, nearer to Spean Bridge. 

In 1788 there were ten MacPhee families living in Glendessary, but most of them were evicted in 1804 at the time of the Lochaber clearances. A tomb in Old Kilmallie churchyard in Corpach has a stone to Alexander MacPhee, "late tenant at Coul in Glendessary, died 1836 aged 66". 

Many of these MacPhees are related but the records make it hard to pin down exactly how (also they do keep recycling the same three forenames). However that is not important, I mention them to flag up recurring points. They were repeatedly fighting for the Jacobite cause, often on the losing side to Campbells or English soldiers. Already we have found an innkeeper and a cattle rustler, which leads me seamlessly to another two who followed those career paths.

Glencoe, The Clachaig Inn and Donald MacPhee

On driving through Glencoe the beauty and the atmosphere of the place are immediately apparent. The changeable weather lets your imagination run back to February 1692 when many men of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed. Forty women and children later died of exposure when they fled as their houses were burned down. The "massacre of Glencoe" may not have been the bloodiest slaughter ever in Scottish history, but the callousness and treachery involved mark it out. 

Many clans had sworn allegiance to the deposed Stuart king, so orders came from King William of Orange in London for the clans to sign an oath of allegiance to him, or face punishment. The MacDonald clan chief faced delays and had to trek in a bitter winter to Inverary, run by their Campbell adversaries, to deliver his oath. In Edinburgh the late-delivered oath was declined and a Campbell dominated regiment of the Argyll regiment was billeted with the MacDonalds in Glencoe. Received as friends seeking shelter, they were taken in under the code of Highland hospitality and stayed there for 12 days before their orders came to kill everyone in the village. Thirty-eight men were killed next morning, including the chief, others died on the hillsides in a harsh blizzard. 

Glencoe on Bartholomew's map of 1904, the old drover's road passing the front door of the Clachaig Inn

In the 1700s Glencoe was still viewed as a dangerous place, so the military road to Fort William that was laid out in 1752 ascended the high pass at Altnafeadh. Here the Devil's Staircase zig-zags up the incline before descending towards the river crossing at Kinlochleven and onwards to Fort William. The road that eventually replaced it, through Glencoe to the ferry crossing at Ballachulish, was the drovers' road laid out in 1786, on which the Clachaig Inn still sits. The Clachaig Inn website dates its history back over 300 years. However it must have been this road, parallel to the current A82 at this spot, that brought new travellers to its doors.

The Clachaig Inn today, the old building still apparent despite the many extensions built onto the back

My great-great grandfather John Macphee was the son of Alexander MacPhee and Kirsty MacMaster. Alexander and Kirsty were married in 1857 at Bunroy Chapel in Roy Bridge. They were crofters at Brackletter near Spean Bridge. My granny told me that Alexander MacPhee's father lived in Fort William, and that five of his sisters had to emigrate to Australia because of the Lochaber clearances. For them it was Lochaber no more. 

Bunroy Chapel, built in 1826 it was demolished not long after this photograph was taken in 1920

My great-great-great grandfather Alexander MacPhee died in 1904 and Donald MacPhee took over the croft at Brackletter. He was also working as a "surfaceman" for the North British Railways, a track worker. In 1920, aged 48, he married a neighbouring crofter, Lucy McColl, who was then aged 34. The wedding took place in the Gorbals in Glasgow, where my granny was a 5 year old girl. Her father, Peter Donnelly, was a witness at the wedding showing how connected all the family still were despite dispersing around the country. 

Clachaig Inn, when I was up in December 2017

In 1920 on returning up north, Lucy and Donald MacPhee (who sometimes spelled his name McPhee) took over the running of the Clachaig Inn, 30 miles south from their crofts. The valuation rolls show that they were still running it until 1935, the year that the National Trust for Scotland bought the whole estate of Glencoe, which included the Clachaig Inn.

Valuation roll from 1925 shows that innkeeper Donald Macphee was renting the Clachaig Inn for £50 per year at that time

Not long after they had taken over the inn, Donald's big sister Annie visited them. She herself worked as a housekeeper. The stamps on the postcard she sent to my great-granny in Glasgow date it to 1920 or 1921. She writes

"Dear Bella, we are having a nice time here and the weather is very good. They are very busy here with people coming for lunch and tea. We are doing a lot of walking. Hope you are well. From Annie"

Postcard from the Clachaig Inn (calling it Glencoe Hotel) 

Annie MacPhee, who wrote the postcard to her niece Bella MacPhee, on visiting her younger brother at the Clachaig Inn, with her husband Peter Healey, a gardener and their son Hughie

It was a time of change for the Clachaig Inn. More traffic on the road and the increased numbers of cars meant that between 1930 and 1934 a new road was cut through Glencoe, the route of the current A82. This crossed the River Coe further down the glen and left the Clachaig Inn off to the side. However it already had a reputation as a hub for those enjoying the great outdoors, particularly popular with mountain climbers, or those just walking, like my auntie Annie. 

In 1930 Donald and Lucy MacPhee had their only son, Archie, whilst they were at the Clachaig Inn and on his birth certificate, the Clachaig Inn is recorded as the place where he was born. In 1936, aged only 64, Donald MacPhee died, back at the croft in Brackletter, from heart problems. 

What of the "No Hawkers or Campbells" sign in the foyer of the Clachaig Inn?

My granny always said that she knew for certain that Donald put that up. Although a version of the sign still welcomes guests to The Clachaig Inn, it is of course more in jest now. However my granny was quite sure that it was put there by Donald in earnest, that he meant it. We will never know, but I have always found my granny's tales to be reliable.As a local man, from a Catholic family with Jacobite leanings, the circumstantial evidence supports her assertion on this one, I would argue.

(Addendum May 2018- I just came across this newspaper clipping among my granny's papers, recording the marriage of Archie MacPhee, the son ofDonald and Lucy. He married Marion MacDonald at Kilmonivaig Church, walking under an arch of shinty sticks, as he was apparently a well-known player).

Ewen MacPhee - The Outlaw

Another MacPhee that my granny told me was a relative was a certain Mr Ewen MacPhee. She had told me that this man lived on an island, was a proud Scot and used to shoot at Redcoats if they approached. Although this sounds like a fanciful tale from Jacobite times, this character did exist. However, not in the 18th century, but in the era of steam trains, paddle steamers and Queen Victoria on the throne. His life story seems so outlandish it is surprise that nobody has thought to make a film of it.

Ewen MacPhee The Outlaw
from RR McLan's book of 1848 "Highlanders at Home, on Heather, River and Loch"2.

When Donald MacPhee's father Alexander was a child in the Spean Bridge area, Ewen MacPhee was living 20 miles further north on an island in Loch Quoich. He was born about 1785 in the Glengarry area, Lochaber. Around 1807 at the start of the Peninsular War against Napoleon's forces, he was conscripted by his laird to the British forces and proved to be an effective soldier, rising through the ranks. As he was unable to read or write, his promotions could only go so far and he is reported to have taken umbrage at this. There is also some reports of money going missing whilst he was fighting in Spain. Whatever the reason, he eventually deserted.

Back in Scotland he was arrested in the Glengarry area, where he was hiding with his sister. Contemporary newspaper reports talk of him being handcuffed and led aboard a steamer at Corpach, by a band of soldiers, but slipping free of his bonds and fleeing, with their musket shots going past his head. He lived wild for 2 years near Loch Arkaig, before deciding that the chase was up and settling on an island in Loch Quoich. Never paying any rent or asking any permission he lived out his days here, and despite his roguish ways seems to have been indulged by the local laird. He took a young wife, Mary, who was reportedly 14 years old when he took her to his island. There they built a bothy and raised a family. The island afterwards took his name, as this 1872 map or Loch Quoich shows, although the island is now submerged below the waters of the loch, after the levels were raised for a hydro-electric scheme in the 1950s. 

Loch Quoich, with Eilean Mhic Phi (MacPhee's Island) visible on it
Ordnance Survey map 1872

He was well known for steeling livestock, but also feared and consulted by poor local residents. He was a tall and imposing figure, and apparently always wore Highland dress, carrying a dirk and a gun with him and threatened anyone planning to arrest him that he would never be taken alive. He was regarded as a seer, who was able to weave charms and heal sick cows. Also when English millionaire Edward Ellice took over the estate, he viewed him as a piece of local colour and MacPhee would come to the estate and pose for paintings to be done by young ladies.

In August 1846, the Inverness Courier has a story of "the well-known singular outlaw Ewen MacPhee" attending a "Highland Competition and Sports Gathering" in Fort William, where a crowd of 3000 to 4000 people had gathered. It reports that he "left his solitary fastness at Glenquoich to be present at the animating scene, and appeared to be highly delighted with it". He entered the competition for those wearing Highland dress and won the third prize of £1 10s that day.

Such indulgent tolerance of his outlaw behaviour did not last. As complaints from neighbours about the extent of his sheep stealing increased two sheriff's officers rowed out to the island to investigate. MacPhee was not at home, but his wife chased off the approaching officers by firing on them, and they fled. Returning a week later in greater force they found large quantities of tallow and skins on the island and arrested MacPhee, who was in his sixties at this time. He was taken away to prison, but no record of the charges against him remains as he died in about 1850 whilst in captivity from cholera, before coming to trial.

The 1841 census records him living on Loch Quoich Island, aged 55, his occupation noted as "Army Ind". His wife Mary is aged 29 at that time and they have six children aged between 13 and 3 years of age living with them on the island, as well as Maryanne McIntyre a 20 year old "female servant" and Duncan McIntyre, a 15 year old "agricultural labourer". Not long after Ewen MacPhee's death, in the 1851 census Mary MacPhee is living in Fort William, with her occupation recorded as "wife of soldier (deserter)". There are three further children living with Mary, including her youngest, a daughter Ann. Unlike the rest who were born on Loch Quoich, Ann was born in Fort Augustus, which suggests this is where Ewen MacPhee spent his last days. 1851 was also the year his family got their name recorded in the local history books again. Popular local doctor, William Kennedy of Leanachan attended to Mary and her children that year when they were affected by typhus. Reports tell of how he attended to them and "cleaned their poverty stricken hovel". Through helping them the doctor contracted typhus and later died from it, with 1400 people attending his funeral and a statue being erected in his honour.

A turbulent time in Scottish history, remembered by my granny and her stories of ancestors who lived through it.

Sources -
1. Bygone Lochaber - Somerled MacMillan 1971
2. Highlanders at Home, on Heather, River and Loch, or Gaelic Gatherings by Robert R. McLan 1848
3. Mountain Outlaw: Encounters with Ewan MacPhee by Ian R Mitchell 2003
   Maps source - National Library of Scotland
   National Records of Scotland