Lambhill’s History

The former stables in the north of Glasgow was built around 1815 as a staging post in the days when horses pulled boats and barges along the Forth and Clyde Canal. These days you’re as likely to see kingfishers and swans along the canal than boats; and horses, hardly at all.

But Lambhill itself has a long and proud history. We’ve witnessed and welcomed all comers, from miners to meteorites, from the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of Glasgow as a major economic centre, to the advance guard of the Roman Empire at its northernmost extent along the Antonine Wall.

Lambhill is particularly well-placed to investigate the astonishing diversity of our natural and built environment.

• Industrial heritage: the area around Lambhill saw the birth of the Industrial Revolution in Scotland and help to grow Glasgow’s fortunes from coal and ironstone mining, steel and heavy industry. Our Coal, Cottages and Canals project investigated the lost mining communities of Lambhill – our exhibition runs until October 2017. Find out more about our Heritage Lottery Funded project here.
• Canal heritage: we’re on the Forth & Clyde Canal, which spans the breadth of Scotland, from the Clyde estuary at Bowling to the Forth estuary at Grangemouth
• Natural heritage: we’re on the edge of Possil Marsh, a Site of Special Scientific Interest managed by Scottish Wildlife Trust, home to many seasonal and migrating species.
• Agricultural heritage: Lambhill has been a predominantly agricultural community for most of its history going back many centuries. Even today, we’re right on the edge of the greater Glasgow conurbation with swathes of farmland stretching out beyond us to the north.
• Roman heritage: we’re just a few hundred meters from the Antonine Wall which passes along roughly in line with the canal across the central belt of Scotland. We’re working with communit archaeologists Northlight Heritage and Glasgow City Council to tell the story of the Romans in Lambhill.
• Extraterrestrial heritage: no frontier is too far! Lambhill was visited by a piece of alien space rock in the form of the High Possil meteorite which landed just across the canal from us in 1804, the first of just four meteorites ever recovered in Scotland.

If you are interested in our heritage activities, get in touch with our Heritage Co-ordinator, Colin Clark colin@lambhillstables.org or call 0141 945 4100 to find out more.

Funded By