Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

01/02/2026

Imbolc, traditionally celebrated at the start of February, marks the mid point between winter solstice and spring equinox. Rooted in Gaelic seasonal festivals, Imbolc is associated with light returning, cleansing, and new beginnings.

🔥 Historically, Imbolc was celebrated by spring cleaning, lighting candles, blessing homes, and looking ahead to the growing season. It’s often linked with the Celtic goddess Brigid, a figure associated with healing, poetry, and renewal.

🌼 The first flowers to push through soil remind us that spring is on its way, even when winter still lingers.

📍 Pictured: Snowdrops at Cathcart Cemetery
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

17/01/2026

We're delighted that Historic Environment Scotland has confirmed the Cemetery will be designated as a Category C space.

Having the Cemetery recognised as a valuable community space for will be important as we apply for funding in the future.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the application, and to those who took the time to comment on the consultation. It's heartening to see that 100% of those were positive.

25/12/2025

The merriest of Christmases to you and yours. 🤶🧑‍🎄🎄🥂

30/10/2025

Please join us on Sunday 09 November for a moment of remembrance. Gather at the Cross of Sacrifice from 10.45 am.

15/10/2025

🍂 Autumn has well and truly arrived — the air is cooler, the light softer, and the leaves are turning gold, amber, and red

💚 It’s a beautiful time to visit, to notice small changes. This season invites slower walks and closer looks.

📍 Pictured: gravestone among the changing leaves.
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery.

25/08/2025

Everything you need to know about designation can be found below

Find and participate in consultations run by Historic Environment Scotland

25/08/2025

We need your help.

Over the last year or so, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has been reviewing Cathcart with a view to recognising the architectural and historic importance of the Cemetery.

The Agency is proposing that the Cathcart Cemetery be scheduled as a Category C listing – a place of historical and architectural interest which is a representative example of a period, style or type.

This is good new for the Cemetery, as it offers some recognition of this special place and will help us when we apply funding and other resources to help preserve the cemetery environment.

As part of the process, HES are asking for your views on their proposal. The consultation period is short and you have until Wednesday 10 September 2025 to email your feedback to [email protected]

You can find a copy of their consultation report on their website: Cathcart Cemetery, Glasgow (300080895)

We would appreciate it if you could get behind the proposal.

Happy to chat about it if you have any questions.

Thanks.

24/08/2025

🐉 In funerary art, dragons often appear as guardians, cosmological beings and fierce protectors set at the threshold between life and death. When shown with their heads entwined or facing each other, they represent the meeting of opposites: life and death, heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical.

This motif has deep roots in medieval and Celtic imagery, where paired or knotted beasts symbolised eternity and the unbreakable cycle of nature. In some Christian interpretations, entwined dragons were reminders of triumph over sin and chaos, while in older folklore they evoked the raw, untameable power of the natural world.

Though less common than angels or urns, dragons can still be found carved on Victorian gravestones. They are a striking symbol of both danger and protection, entwined at the gateway to the afterlife.

📍 Pictured: Dragon carving on a graveatone at Cathcart Cemetery
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

23/08/2025

🐦 Magpies are striking birds, easily recognised by their bold black-and-white plumage with flashes of iridescent blue and green. Intelligent and adaptable, they’re part of the crow family and are known for their complex social lives and remarkable problem-solving skills.

In folklore, magpies have long been surrounded by superstition. The familiar rhyme“One for sorrow, two for joy…” hints at their reputation as omens, sometimes of misfortune, sometimes of luck. Religious folklore often claims magpies refused to mourn at Christ’s crucifixion or did not enter Noah’s Ark, adding to their reputation as outsiders.

Magpies are also widely associated with thievery and they appear in stories as tricksters, thieves, or harbingers of mischief.

Despite their dark reputation, magpies play an important role in the ecosystem. They help control insect and rodent populations, and like other corvids, they cache food, which can even aid the growth of new plants.

📍 Pictured: Magpie at Cathcart Cemetery
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

21/08/2025

🌹 After the dog rose blooms in early summer, its pale pink petals fall away to reveal the base of the flower and this is what develops into the bright red hips we see later in the year. In other words, the hips are the fruit of the rose, forming once pollination has taken place.

🐦 These oval hips are packed with vitamin C and persist well into winter, making them a vital food source for birds such as thrushes, blackbirds and finches, as well as small mammals.

🌿 People have also relied on rose hips for centuries. During the Second World War, people across Britain collected them by the sackful, which were then made into a vitamin-rich syrup to make up for the lack of imported citrus fruit. Today they’re still used in teas, jams and traditional remedies.

✨ In folklore, wild roses were seen as protective plants, with their thorny branches warding off evil and their fruit associated with resilience and healing.

📍 Pictured: Rose hips at Cathcart Cemetery
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

20/08/2025

🚶‍♀️ Looking for a way to celebrate Glasgow’s green heart? Try the Magnificent 11 Walk – an 11-mile circular route linking seven of the Southside’s beautiful green spaces.

🌿 The walk takes you from Linn Park along the White Cart Water to King’s Park, through Castlemilk Park, then across Fernbrae Meadows to reach Cathkin Braes – Glasgow’s highest point with sweeping views of the city. From there you loop back down past Carmunnock and through the Cart and Kittoch Valleys before returning to Linn Park.

🍃 Often described as Scotland’s greenest urban walk, it connects woodlands, meadows, farmland, and nature reserves – showing just how much wildness lies at Glasgow’s edge.

🪦 The route even skirts past Cathcart Cemetery (but we recommend a short detour through!) Here you’ll find a peaceful landscape rich in heritage, wildlife, and symbolism.

📍 Pictured:
1️⃣ Footpath through Cathkin Braes
2️⃣ 🦋 Small tortoiseshell butterfly on wildflowers
3️⃣ 🌇 View across Glasgow from Cathkin Braes
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery.

19/08/2025

🌳The rowan tree is known for its red berries towards the end of summer, which provide food for many birds and mammals, including thrushes, blackbirds, badgers and deer.

In Scotland, rowans have long been seen as trees of protection. People once planted them beside homes and in churchyards to keep away witchcraft and misfortune. Their bright berries, each marked with a tiny star, were thought to hold protective power, captured in the rhyme: “Rowan tree and red thread, make the witches tine their speed.”

The rowan also appears in Norse myth, where it saved the god Thor from being swept away by a river. Its strong wood was valued for walking sticks and tools, and its berries brewed into drinks. Today they are still made into rowan jelly in Scotland.

📍 Pictured: Rowan berries at Cathcart Cemetery
📷 Image © Friends of Cathcart Cemetery