In my previous post about St Augustine’s Church, Dumbarton, I mentioned that I ought to have photographed its fine stained glass west window from inside.

In September, on West Dunbartonshire’s open day, I got the opportunity.

From body of church:-

Closer view:-

There is a smaller set of stained glass windows (at the back of the left-hand aisle as you look at the above):-

And of course there is another set of stained glass wimdows above the altar. Chancel and altar:-

An addition to the church from when I remembered it there has been a new addition, a cross made by artist John Woodcock to commemorate those who have died of addiction:-

Inscription:-

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 24/12/22.

A very good way indeed to celebrate the club’s 150^th anniversary.

From the reports I’ve read it sounds like we fully deserved the win. Goals from Gregor Buchanan and David Wilson did the job.

I can’t remember ever being top of the league at Christmas before. Ditto at New Year. (Our four point lead means we wil achieve that accolade too.) Mind you our next game – on Hogmanay – will be tough. We’ve found Albion Rovers to be difficult opponents this season.

SPFL Tier 4, Forthbank Stadium, 8/10/22.

Well.

This is the result that most Sons fans knew in their bones was coming. Things had been going too well.

We’re still top of the league, though.

But for how long?

It’s all eerily reminiscent of last season when the wheels fell off spectacularly with a 5-0 drubbing at Peterhead on the first Saturday in October. But this was worse.

The only consolation is that this time we have a bigger points cushion.

Next Saturday at home against Albion Rovers is now a must win I’d say.

Otherwise I’d not fancy us at all to beat Cumnock in the Cup the Friday after.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 9/4/22.

It all started so well, with space opening up in front of Josh Oyinsan about five minutes in and him spanking a cracker in from outside the box.

We were dominant for the rest of the half and had innumerable corners but failed to get efforts on target from them.

As soon as they got their corner with about a minute left in the first half I just knew we’d concede. I think it was the only effort they’d had.

Second half they were more in it but didn’t add to their tally. Neither did we.

In stoppage time we finally got an effort on goal from a corner, a George Stanger header, but their keeper made a brilliant save.

We’re still four points behind Peterhead with only three games left and the next two of those are against the top two. We’ll likely be seven points behind after them.

That’s it then. Ninth at best, and another round of nail-biting play-offs.

Who’d be a football fan?

The Queen’s Gallery lies over the road from the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, and close by Holyrood Palace. It has recently been refurbished and styled with a blonde wood.

Art Deco style lamp in niche by entrance to the Queen’s Gallery:-

Lower part of stairwell:-

Upper part of stairwell:-

Stair guard rail:-

Ceiling + Light:-

At the time we visited there was an exhibition of paintings illustrating the lives of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Painting of Scutari Monument at Great Exhibition. (The Great Exhibition is one of my interests so I had to photograph this):-

Similarly this painting by Edouard Hildebrandt of Dumbarton Rock and Castle was a must:-

Information card re painting above:-

Luss is a village on the shores of Loch Lomond in the west of Scotland. It’s about twelve or so miles from Dumbarton.

It was the village where most of the outside shots for the Scottish Television (STV) soap opera Take the High Road were filmed.

Luss from the village pier:-

Part of Luss from the other side of the pier:-

Luss Church:-

In the churchyard there is a Viking hogback stone:-

Just up from the church there is this curious bridge which seems to cross a small inlet of Loch Lomond:-

In the village itself there’s this cottage with (shallow) cat slide dormer windows:-

The Loch Lomond Arms is at the top of the road down to the pier:-

On our visit to the town last March we also had a look in Dumbarton town centre. The Artizan Shopping Centre has seen better days. That day many of its premises did not have tenants. Covid can only have made that worse.

Some of the empty units had been brightened up though by having huge photographs of Dumbarton Rock pasted onto their frontages. These are crops of the photos I took of those huge photos.

The Rock is a beautiful sight, isn’t it?. And that’s a lovely sky.

This cracking shot of Dumbarton Rock and Dumbarton Football Stadium (aka The Rock) was posted in 2020 in a blog I follow:-

And this view was in a newsletter from Dumbarton FC:-

In March last year we were over in Dumbarton again – no doubt for a football match.

However we also took the chance to have a look at the old Municipal Buildings which date from long before local government reorganisation in the 1960s – at a time when the town had a Town Council.

Arch and Municipal Buildings, Dumbarton:-

The plaque attached to the arch describes it as one of the tower arches of St Mary’s Collegiate Church, founded 1450. The arch was moved in 1850 to make way for the railway station and again in 1907 to its present location:-

Boer War Memorial, Dumbarton, Municipal Buildings behind. The memorial is inscribed, “Erected by the citizens of Dumbarton in memory of those who left the burgh to fight for their country in South Africa and who laid down their lives during the progress of the war 1899-1902.”:-

I’ve posted Footy Adventures’s video of Dumbarton Football Stadium from Dumbarton Rock elsewhere.

Now, in another video (posted on 7/1/21) he took advantage of the club granting him access to the ground (well there was no-one else around) and he’s very enthusiastic about the place.

He waxes lyrical about the surroundings but bemoans the fact the fans can’t see the Rock when they’re seated in the stand.

However from the stand there is a very good view of the range of hills known locally as the Long Crags but whose formal name is I think the Kilpatrick Hills, which also overlook the town and are scenic in themselves.

Posting this means I probably don’t need to inflict my own photos of the Rock on you all.

The First Kings of Scotland:

Someone on the football forum Pie & Bovril posted this video as seen on You Tube and made by a user called Footy Adventures.

It had great views of Dumbarton Rock and The Rock. Not to mention the town and surroundings.

PS. I can confirm that from Annbank (over the River Clyde,) Dumbarton Rock does look like a recumbent elephant.