The City of Glasgow, the University and Surroundings
Glasgow is a large, diverse, and 'real' city, home to over half-a-million people. Like most cities, it has prosperous parts, and grossly neglected parts. It was the slum conditions of Glasgow in the early 1900's that motivated Boyd Orr to abandon teaching and study medicine and biological sciences at our University. He would probably be disappointed to find out that life expectency in some parts of Glasgow are still less than in the West Bank. There is much still to do. This said, Glasgow - in my experience - is a much misunderstood city. I've never experienced a city in which the people are as friendly and good-natured as here. The University is based in the 'West End' of the city, an extensive area of parks, botanical gardens, pubs, bars, shops, restaurants and coffee houses, all embedded in a matrix of very fine, affordable, spatious tenement flats. It is routine to live within walking distance of work, and equally easy to travel into the city centre. Yes - it's pretty wet, in fact it often rains several times a day... but again, it's often sunny several times a day. Having lived in Vancouver, it strikes me feel reasonably dry!
- Lonely Planet on Glasgow (in 2008 Lonely Planet judged Glasgow to be one of the worlds top 10 cities)
- About the University
- 2008 RAE rating
- People make Glasgow
- The List's entertainment guide to the Central Belt gives you an idea of the enormous range of things to do
One of the great attractions of Glasgow is the proximity to the highlands. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, the Arrochar hills, and the Crianlarich hills are less than 1 hour drive away, Glen Coe and the sourthern Cairgorms are within 2 hours. Kintail, Skye and Ullapool are within 4 hours. You can get an idea of what's 'up the road' from the 'Undiscovered Scotland' site. Members of the Centre take full advantage of all of this, with regular walking, climbing, canoeing, and sailing days and holidays.
Dan Haydon