View over Glasgow from Queen’s Park

I thought I should follow up the last post (which was a review of my new Lumix DMC-G1) with a shot from my initial outing with my new camera.  So this is from December 2008.  Ahem…

I went to Queen’s Park and walked up to the top of the park.  For those who don’t know the park, it surrounds a hill on top of which is a flagpole.  There’s a paved viewing area around the flagpole and, on good days, you can enjoy extensive views over much of Glasgow.  This was a bright, wintery day, so conditions were ideal.

View north over Glasgow from Queen's Park

This shot was taken about 30 minutes before the sun set, so the sun was low in the sky – hence the golden colour to the light.  We’re looking slightly west of north here.  (Think of it as about 11:00 on a clock face…)

[Click the small photo to see a larger version…]

You can see a number of landmarks – some famous, some less well known. Working from the foreground back, the ones I’ve identified are as follows:

1. The unbroken line of tenements (old apartment buildings) that stretches across the bottom third of the photo is Nithsdale Road joining Darnley Street.
2. The tall church spire near the left of the photo belongs to Pollokshields Church of Scotland.  (Located at the junction of Albert Drive and Shields Road, this a little over five minutes away, by foot, from where I was born.)
3. Next back, emerging to the right of the spire, you can see a fair bit of the supporting arch of the bridge which, although know officially as the Glasgow Arc, is commonly referred to as the Squinty Bridge.  (It’s ‘squinty’ because its path over the River Clyde is ‘at an angle’ – it’s not straight.  Instead of crossing at right-angles to the river banks, this bridge goes diagonally – at almost 45° – across.)
4. On the far side of the river and just a little to the left of the church spire, you can see the 165 feet tall Finnieston Crane.
5. Moving deeper into the photo and back to the the right of the church spire is, of course, Glasgow University’s highly recognisable Main Building – complete with its own spire on top of the tower.
6. The ‘barren’ hills stretching from about the middle of the horizon off to the right is the western end of the Campsie Fells.
7. Finally, I’m 99% certain that the main snow-capped peak in the far distance, between the two spires,  is Ben Venue – about 30 miles distant, as the crow flies.