A Lady in London

My grandmother grew up in Glasgow. When she was just a wee lass, Glasgow was an important industrial hub and the River Clyde buzzed–quite literally–with industry and growth. Culture flourished as Scotland’s most famous architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, designed the likes of the Willow Tea Rooms and the Glasgow School of Art. The city was on the up and up.

While Glasgow grew and prospered, my grandmother and her family escaped the urban scene to spend their summers on the beautiful Isle of Arran.

Although just two hours from Glasgow in distance, the island could not have been farther away in character. Nicknamed “Scotland in Miniature”, the wee isle was a peaceful place of respite for worn-out city dwellers like my grandmother and her family.

Alas, nothing gold can stay. By the time my grandmother was in her teens, Glasgow’s gilded age was rapidly coming to an end. Out went the ship building industry, and with it went my grandmother. To America she sailed, leaving her city to its sad decline.

Fast forward a century and Glasgow has once again found its footing. The banks of the Clyde, long abandoned by ship builders, are now abuzz with grands projets like the armadillo-shaped Glasgow Science Center and the Sydney-opera-house-inspired Scottish Exhibition + Conference Center. The West End is alive with busy bars, and the dining scene in Merchant City proudly boasts of authentic and inventive Scottish cuisine.

With the resurgence of the city came the return of my family. My boyfriend in tow, I traveled to Scotland last weekend to explore the place of my grandmother’s birth. We wanted to discover the newness of the city while paying homage to its former glory, so we navigated Glasgow by hopscotching our way through time.

Our first stops were Glasgow Cathedral and the University of Glasgow, the city’s old monuments that have watched Glasgow’s transformation from their posts high on the hills. We then ate excellent salmon at a great fish restaurant in Merchant City and availed ourselves of the lively nightlife in the West End. We had tea at Mackintosh’s Willow Tea Rooms and toured the famous Glasgow School of Art.

After all the urban adventuring, we needed someplace to relax. Enter Arran. A quick ferry ride later, we were exploring the lovely island of my grandmother’s childhood.

We spent a day and a half hiking to hidden seaside caves and giant stone monoliths, exploring beautiful rocky beaches and ancient abandoned castles, and walking to waterfalls above Iron Age forts. We fawned over Arran’s vast number of lambs, foals and calves and we sipped wee drams of the island’s own whiskey and ate our fill of Arran’s cheeses, meats and ice cream.

While our time in Scotland was limited to just one weekend, I was glad to get a small taste of my grandmother’s city and her summertime island. She certainly had the right idea, and I think I just might make my trip to Scotland an annual event.