Podcast #073: The Cathcart Circle

View of a street. On the left of shot is a row of tenement block. On the right are bushes and trees. In the distance is a railway station sign - Pollokshields West.

Welcome to Episode 073 of my “Travel Tales From Beyond The Brochure” podcast.

As you know, I’m always touting the idea of Hometown Travel, and exploring places close to home. Remember, people travel across the world to visit other cities but other people travel across the world to visit yours. Everywhere is interesting, And of course many people might not be able to visit places far away, but still want to enjoy the experience of travel and discovering somewhere new.

I’ve been living in Glasgow for two years, and I’ve walked round a lot of it, using the many railway stations as waypoints, It seems logical therefore to talk about some of the things close to where I currently live, and there’s a convenient railway line that loops around my local area to follow. This is the Cathcart Circle, and I figured each of the ten stations on it has enough to fill a podcast. Indeed, a few could probably manage a podcast on their own, but I am not the Roundel Round We Go Podcast and I’d argue there’s less call for an entire pod on the Glasgow suburban rail network than the London Underground.

But what do I know?

Topics covered on this podcast include:

  • Google Analytics 4
  • My future on Twitter
  • Introduction to the Cathcart Circle
  • Pollokshields East – theatre, gardens, and Sikhs
  • Queen’s Park – clue’s in the name
  • Crosshill – dead football stadiums
  • Mount Florida – alive football stadiums
  • Cathcart – parks, bridges, waterfalls, country houses
  • Langside – Instagrammable houses and a very short battle
  • Pollokshaws East – old builldings and benevolent Tories
  • Shawlands – Pollok Country Park
  • Maxwell Park – expensive villas and international cricket
  • Pollokshields West – tenement housing and community spirit
  • Crossmyloof – a free gift, and a building that moved

You can listen via the feed above, or via Spotify, or on your podcast app of choice. Let me know if it isn’t, by the way, and I’ll see what I can do. In addition, a PDF transcript of this episode is available.

As always, if you have anything to say about the topic, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. I now have a newsletter you can subscribe to, containing extra content, and it’s where I’ll be mentioning future podcast episodes if you want to make your own contribution.

I also now have a Patreon! If you like what you hear, and want to access exclusive content (or just to show your appreciation), then head on over to my page and donate to me!

There are no contributions on this pod, but creative use has been made of Scotrail’s station announcements which have been released into the public domain.

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