Gateway Glasgow Overflowing with the spirit of the Bard ... and the water of life

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

taste of each is included in the ticket entry price. The event also has live music and dancing, not to mention great local scran to keep you hale and hearty as you sup.

If you can’t make this event, Glasgow’s Whisky Festival (glasgowwhiskyfestival.com), which also attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over Scotland and beyond, takes place at Hampden Park on November 9.

SIT DOWN WITH BURNS

Burns’ influence on Glasgow continues to grow and flourish, as evidenced by the founding of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow (gla.ac.uk) in 2007. Another of the city’s ancient institutions, Glasgow Cathedral (glasgowcathedral.org.uk), was presented with a group of specially engraved chairs in 1996 to mark the bi-centenary of the Bard’s death. The seats, engraved with a mouse, a sheaf of corn and a rose, signifying three of the best-loved images in his work, are still used and appreciated by members of the congregation and visitors alike.

IN WITH THE NEW

Whisky runs through the heart of Glasgow’s industrial heritage, though the city’s once numerous Clydeside stills emptied for the last time more than a century ago. All that changed in 2017 with the opening of the Clydeside Distillery, created at a former pumphouse on the banks of the river between the Riverside Museum and the Hydro, on the site – Queen’s Dock - built by the current chairman’s great grandfather in 1877. Although the new spirit is not yet ready for consumption, there’s plenty to do, see and taste on a tour of the site, not to mention stunning views of the Clyde and beyond.

Glasgow is clearly rediscovering its taste for making as well as drinking whisky, with another new distillery, the Clutha, due to open this year across the river at Pacific Quay.

Just an hour from Glasgow city centre is the humble thatched cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire, where

Burns – known as the Ploughman Poet – was born and lived with his family, side by side with their farm animals.

Now a museum, Burns Cottage (burnsmuseum.org) remains a hugely evocative place, taking you back in time to the

Above: A whisky lover’s paradise, Glengoyne Distillery