Pulhamite at Ross Hall, Glasgow
Alison Allighan writes:
In May 2009, we were pleased to support the formation of a ‘Friends of Rosshall Park’, the park being one of only five sites in Scotland known to contain artificial rockwork by James Pulham & Son. At their inaugural meeting Christopher Dingwall, the Society’s Honorary Research Adviser for Scotland, gave a short talk on the history of Pulhamite and the significance of Rosshall.
Ross Hall, near Glasgow (photo by Allison Allighan)
Ross Hall, built by James Cowan of Hawkhill in 1877 to replace an earlier house, stands to one side of an extensive landscape park, first laid out in the 18th century within a meander bend on the White Cart Water, south west of Glasgow.
The Pulham designed lochan with its island and subterranean boathouse at Ross Hall (photo by Alison Allighan)
Nearby lies further Pulhamite pools, ravine, arch, grottoes, bridges and waterfalls (photo by Allison Allighan)
In the 1890s James Pulham & Son were commissioned by Cowan to build a rock garden, comprising an artificial lochan with an island and subterranean boathouse flanked by two substantial areas of Pulhamite rockwork including a sunken pool, ravine, rustic arch, cave, grottoes, bridges and waterfalls (below right). The rock garden and lochan, planted with ferns, alpine and aquatic plants, and surrounded by trees and shrubs is accessed by a path network.
The house and garden remained in private hands until 1948 when they were acquired by Glasgow Corporation. While the grounds became a public park in the 1960s, the mansion house served as a college for a time, before becoming a private hospital. The Pulhamite rock garden, now Category B-listed in its own right, remains in fair condition but is beginning to suffer from frost damage, tree roots, weeds and vandalism, so is in need of restoration work to prevent further deterioration. Although regular maintenance of the park is undertaken by teams from the council’s Land Services division, it does not have its own dedicated staff.
The Friends of Rosshall Park will provide an opportunity for the local community to work the City Council to improve the quality of the park. Since the inaugural meeting a planning application has been lodged by the Council seeking permission to undertake specialist repair works to the rock garden.
We hope that with the proposed restoration of the site it may become more widely recognised as one of Glasgow’s garden heritage gems and that it may even merit consideration by Historic Scotland for inclusion in the Inventory.
August 2009
See also the Pulham Legacy
For more photos
Category: Conservation |
4 Comments » 
Had a walk around Ross Hall Gardens with my sister today. What an amazing place. The rock gardens including subterranean boat house are fascinating. I would recommend this hidden treasure to everyone. Well worth a visit.
I discovered Ross Hall Gardens today. It’s a beautiful place and well worth conserving for the future. A stunning mix of deciduous and coniferous woodland.
As I walked through the garden, I was particularly intrigued by the rockwork. So much so, that I googled the history of the area, and found this page.
A wonderful place which is in need of some TLC.
My family lived in Rosshall Park from 1960 to 1967. My father was a gardener in the glasshouses. He was very knowledgable about a wide variety of plants and soils and grew grapes, mellon and other tropical and subtropical fruit. The glasshoses where built along a south facing wall and due to the type of fruit grown where always kept very warm. Rosshall in those days was not open to the public and was a beautifull and idilic place to live. Our family, my brother and two sisters, had the run of the park and it was one long adventure. The large house in the grounds, I think, was the “dough school” where students where taught to cook. We did not see much of the students. I would happily be corrected on this if I’m wrong.
The park was very quiet and in those days was kept in pristine condition. The lawn from the big house to the pond was lush and verdent and we as children would roll down the hill just stopping before we fell into the pond, much to our parents shagrins. The pond had two islands which where reachable from the boat kept in the manmade cave. In the early days a boat was kept there and my father would row us to the islands. It was later removed but I am not sure why?
Every spring there was an abundance of frog spawn and of course tadpols. Cue green fishing net and jamjar for hours of fun followed by playing with frogs a few weeks later. The rest of the summer we had to make do with minnows and other pond life.
As you moved around the pond you came across a willow tree whose branches were so long it hide the path to the grotto. The path was made of red sandstone slabs which were laid out beautifully. The planting on either side was a mixture of mosses and ferns and in the summer the heat of the sun made the air hot and clammy.
Walking throught the path the stone walls became higher and slightly daunting. Further on you come to smaller pond then filled with ( I think it was duck weed) surounded with high stone walls. This was the grotto and was absolutly magical.
The path ended in a cave, one you can stand up in. The cave was a little scary for us young children, particularly as in the day my father would trace his steps back and climb on top ot the cave and whooooo into a hole that opened into the cave. For a while we all thought there really was a ghost. We kept this going as a family for years and to this day we still insist that there is a ghost in the park.
As well as the pond area there was also a fantastic woodland with beautifull tall mature trees. One of the walklways has fantastic elms and limes with some incredibly high conifers in the mix.
There was also the walk along the River Cart which was only made into a path a couple of years before we left our house. This was a great place to play for me. I loved the water and made little boats to sail and later rafts to sail on. I remember the river flooding a couple of times and was amazed at the volume of water passing just below our house.
There was also a couple of very cold winter and the river froze. It was so cold I could walked across to the other side. I knew even at the tender age of seven that this was not a clever thing to do, buy hay I was seven. The pond froze solid and was great for sliding on.
The house we had had a good half acre of land that my father used as our garden. He grew strawberries. raspberries. blackcurrent and gooseberries. My mum had a jellypan going from July to September every year. We also had unmpteen vegitables and salad leaves growing. There were three apple trees as well. We where so lucky.
There where other families in the park too. Most lived just off Crookstone Road across from the enterence to Cairnhill Circus. There was another lodgehouse off Crookston Road near the big house. We were a nice wee community.
As with everything else things have to change and with a family growing up the house we were in was too small and we had to move to Cairnhill Circus across the road from the park, but thats another adventure.
Returning to the park in the interveening years it has been sad to see the deterioration that has taken place. The house we lived in has now gone, the glasshouses have long gone. The big house is now part of a hospital and the park has not been maintained as it had in previous days. I feel we lived there in a bygone era and we were privilaged to be part of that.
Rosshall is still a very nice place to visit and there are some great walks. Please go and see it as it is. My glasses are probably a little rose tinted, the memories certainly are.