The history of Dougalston

LoveDougalston SCIO seeks to highlight the rich historical context of this beautiful estate and designed landscape. Safeguarding valuable heritage like this for future generations is a large part of what we are trying to achieve. We have been fortunate that Professor Paul Bishop, has produced some interesting information that we are very grateful for. In 2015, Paul retired from the University of Glasgow as Professor of Physical Geography and since retiring has been working on the history of the local area. We very much look forward to Paul’s major paper on the history of Dougalston being published soon.

Dougalston Estate was purchased in 1767 by John Glassford, the fabulously wealthy Glasgow Tobacco Lord. The estate’s designed landscape layout can virtually all be identified on the ground, including ha-has (about a mile and a half of them), walks/rides, large trees of various ages, doocot, Gaming House (Factor’s House) with its own ha-ha and views, and driveways of various ages.

The late eighteenth century doocot and its field are key parts of the designed landscape. The doocot was meant to be viewed from several different directions, and a ha-ha is a key part of the view from one direction. If any development were to occur in the area surrounding the doocot, this significant part of the designed landscape would no longer be preserved.

This is one of the more than 70 masons’ marks on the exterior of the doocot, recording the masons who built it in the late eighteenth century. See how many masons’ marks you can find the next time you are looking at the doocot.

A Dougalston ha-ha where it meets Baldernock Road near the start of the Woodland Walk. This ha-ha parallels the Woodland Walk from Baldernock Road to near where the very large beech tree has been felled.

Interior view of the doocot showing some of the approximately 570 next boxes in which doos (doves or pigeons) were housed and bred. The clay bricks used to build the next boxes were almost certainly made on the estate.

James Glassford, John Glassford’s grandson, planted in the region of 350,000 plants, encompassing 66 varieties ranging from the usual woodland trees to more exotic varieties. The scientific dating of 17 trees shows that some very old trees are scattered though the designed landscape, at least five of them dating from John Glassford’s time. Another four of the 17 date from the time of John’s son Henry, and the remainder from the time of Henry Gordon Glassford and James Gordon Glassford in the second half of the nineteenth century. The strip of woodland running up the hill along the Woodland Walk from the site of the Stables almost certainly dates to at least the middle of the eighteenth century.

The doocot viewed across its ha-ha near the old oak. The ha-ha is the dip in the golf course fairway that crosses at centre. The golf course has smoothed out and rounded the ha-ha, which can be better seen away from the edges of the fairway.

Paul Bishop taking a thin core from a beech tree on the lip of a ha-ha to date the tree using tree-ring dating (dendrochronology). The core is about the same thickness as a pencil and does the tree no harm. Dr Coralie Mill’s dating of the core shows that this tree sprouted in 1808. It was probably planted out in about 1812.

Three important pieces of the Dougalston designed landscape in one spot by the Woodland Walk: the walled garden in the background, cold frames for propagating plants in the middle ground (low brick walls), and the ditch of a ha-ha in the foreground.

The designed landscape still exists beneath the ‘light covering’ of the golf course and must be treated as an integrated whole. Its integrity will be lost if parts of the landscape are developed and other parts left untouched.

Dougalston provides a perfect opportunity to preserve a designed landscape on the northern outskirts of Scotland’s largest city and continues to provide open space and great amenity for the wider community.

At first sight this eighteenth and nineteenth designed landscape appears hidden. However, on closer inspection it is largely still there. This valuable historic, community asset must be retained.

Paul Bishop taking a core for tree-ring dating of a beech on the upthrown bank that forms the Ladies Pond. This beech has a sprouting date of about 1800 and was probably planted out on the bank of the Ladies Pond in about 1804.

This was once a major entry back into the Dougalston designed landscape from Baldernock Road. It has now been infilled with a later stone wall (compare this wall to the walls on either side of it). Behind the wall is a very large old oak and beyond the wall the doocot (dovecot). It is thought that a major ‘ride’ through the designed landscape came out onto Baldernock Road further back towards Baldernock, along Baldernock Road towards Milngavie and then back into the designed landscape at this gate. The ride then passed along the ha-ha giving the view to the doocot and then back to the mansion house.

The very large old oak at the former entry to the designed landscape. Tree-ring dating shows that this oak sprouted before 1770 and was probably planted out before 1774. John Glassford, the Glasgow Tobacco Lord, bought Dougalston in 1767 and so this oak would have been planted out in John Glassford’s time.