The designed landscape of Pollok Park is the product of centuries of building and landscape projects, from its inception as a medieval estate, through to its 21st century form and Glasgow's 'green lung'.
Its early origins date to around 1270, when Nether Pollok (part of the Barony of Mearns and Pollok) was granted to Sir John Maxwell (1243-1306). Located close to the medieval town of Glasgow, the estate became a trading and administrative centre of increasing power, with three successive castles built in the 13th-14th centuries.
The core of the estate was on the White Cart Water, and fabric from later adaptations of the third castle (the Laighe Castle) survives within the present stable complex (Mitchell 2009). Documents of the late 16th century describe associated orchards, woods and yards (produce gardens) (Haynes 2016: 10). There was a causeway across the river, and a settlement called Polloktoun immediately to its south (Ogilvy 1741, Canmore ID 44389). Meanwhile, succeeding generations of the Maxwell family consolidated and expanded their estate, adding neighbouring landholdings such as Haggs, Pollokshaws and Cowglen.
By 1732, when Sir John Maxwell of Blawarthill inherited, the much-adapted Laighe Castle was at the centre of a compact arrangement of long-established garden grounds. These were described as 'curious orchards and gardens' surrounded by 'large parks and meadows, excellently well planted' (Crawford 1710). Keen to make his mark, Sir John Maxwell began investigations for a modern mansion house on a new site, 'where some architects and people of skill tell me I shall find a much more preferable situation' (National Archives of Scotland GD220/5/884/2-3). An estate plan, drawn up in 1741, survives as a valuable document of the earlier landscape on the brink of change (Ogilvy 1741).
The vision of a new house and grounds was embraced by Sir John's son, who succeeded as 3rd baronet in 1752. Having travelled on a grand tour in his youth, the new laird probably steered the classical design of the house (completed 1752), together with the ornamental bridge and cascades (Haynes 2016: 11). The much adapted Laighe Castle, now redundant as a residence, was incorporated into new stabling while the ruin of the older (second) castle was demolished – its environs transformed as a wilderness garden in the later 18th century.
After a quick succession of lairds, the drive for improvement continued from 1785under the 7th baronet, Sir John Maxwell, and his wife, Lady Hannah.
Like other landowners of this era, they sought to increase the productive capacity of their estate through agricultural improvement and woodland management, while also enhancing the setting of Pollok House. Trees were planted, fields and garden grounds improved, and the residents of Polloktoun moved so the old village south of the White Cart could be demolished in favour of open parkland views to and from the house.
Drawn in 1796, Ainslie's map shows Pollok House at the centre of a transformed and mature parkland and woodland estate with much of the structure of the present landscape in place - open grounds, plantations, buildings, drives, farms- (Ainslie 1796). By this time, there was a good range of timber (Haynes 2016: 25-26) and Pollok had a growing reputation for veteran trees and parkland specimens (Strutt 1826, McDonald 1854). In terms of aesthetics, an engraving of 1798 depicts Pollok House in a tranquil riverside setting (Anon. 1798), while a series of different watercolour scenes, painted in the 1820s-30s by an unknown artist, and preserved in scrapbooks created by Lady Hannah, show views of the house and other estate buildings and grounds with lush green backdrops of parks, wood, farms, fields and local landmarks, such as Crookston Castle (www.theglasgowstory.com, information courtesy of National Trust for Scotland).
Although mining and quarrying on estate land had already begun by this time, Pollok was still set within a very rural landscape, clearly separate from the city of Glasgow. Incrementally this changed, first with the coming of the railway from 1845, skirting the parks to the southeast, and then with the ongoing feuing of estate lands, meeting the demand of an expanding city and resulting in the development of Pollokshields and other built districts, initially to the north and east.
One of the most influential figures in the history of the designed landscape was Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, 10th baronet (1866-1956), who witnessed and shaped this wider change around the periphery of the estate during the later 19th century and first half of the 20th century, together with important modifications to Pollok House and grounds. A member of parliament, Stirling-Maxwell went on to serve in leading roles with a range of public bodies and was a founder member of the National Trust for Scotland. His interests ranged from horticulture and forestry through to architecture and town-planning. He was an advocate of the benefits of outdoor space and green land for city-dwellers and a supporter of the Garden City movement.
At Pollok, Stirling-Maxwell recruited the well-known architect, Robert Rowand Anderson (1834-1921), from 1890 to design extensions to the house and oversee a new formal garden scheme along the south front. A subscriber to contemporary plant hunting expeditions, Stirling-Maxwell introduced specimen trees and shrubs, developed the woodland garden, and cultivated rhododendron hybrids, creating mature gardens noted for their design success by the 1930s (Taylor 1934). New lodge buildings and a refined system of drives were also part of the programme of works.
Beyond the core garden grounds, Stirling-Maxwell harnessed the economic potential of the land, and created what effectively became a 'buffer' of amenity and recreational grounds between the inner grounds of Pollok House and the expanding city (O'Brien 2010: 81). New infrastructure, planting and land-forming associated with these grounds substantially changed the former parkland character of the outer policies. However, they also followed on from a long sporting tradition at Pollok which ranged from 18th to 19th century horseracing and golf, through to curling, lawn tennis and archery (O'Brien 2010: 78-85). Building on this tradition, Stirling-Maxwell leased and donated land for allotments, golf courses and other recreational sports. Among these were Poloc Cricket Club, founded in 1880, Cartha Athletic Club in 1889, Pollok Golf Club in 1892, Cowglen Golf Club in 1906 and Haggs Castle Golf Club in 1910.
Located just south of the White Cart Water, Pollok Golf Course was redesigned in 1922-24 by the renowned golf architect, Alister MacKenzie (1870-1934). It was among the first to be designed following the principles he set out in his 1920 book, 'Golf Architecture', in which he favoured the use of natural features and hazards over artificially sculpted courses (MacKenzie 1920).
In the 1930s, Stirling-Maxwell corresponded with the leading town-planner Sir (Leslie) Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957) on developments in the agricultural lands west of Pollok House. Remembered mainly for his major work on the Greater London Plan, and for his role in shaping post-war Glasgow, Abercrombie was, at the time, Professor of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool, and a prolific and respected consultant during the interwar period. His concern for the preservation of rural amenity and landscape chimed with Stirling-Maxwell's outlook (Mooney 1998).
In 1926, Glasgow's city boundaries had expanded to include this rural area in anticipation of large-scale housing development, and in 1934, Stirling-Maxwell sold the land to Glasgow Corporation. A critic of existing housing schemes elsewhere, and drawing on Abercrombie's support, Stirling-Maxwell helped influence what was heralded at the time as the 'premier garden suburb of the city'. To offset the necessarily built character of the housing scheme, hilltops were left open, roads would be wide and lined with trees, and 'a belt of country' would be left along the Cart and Levern to 'provide pleasure walks', and retain 'sylvan beauty' (Glasgow Corporation D-HE/6/3/38, 1937; Mooney 1998, Maver 2000: 260).
To the north and east, Pollok Park had already become surrounded by urban development and the ensuing building work now also radically changed the former rural landscape to the west. Although designed to 'blend in' with the natural amenities (Mooney 1998: 34-35), the new garden suburb of Pollok nevertheless represented a substantial change in character. Built in stages from 1937, it replaced a more gentle and fluid transition from rural estate parkland to rural agricultural landscape in the 19th century and early 20th century (which itself shifted over time) with a much more defined boundary between urban fabric (streets, houses, pavements, gardens) and estate policies (woods, open grounds, open recreational grounds). The planting of woodland clumps east and northeast of Damshot Crescent to screen the housing development in the 1930s to 40s reinforced this line as a clear threshold between the two contrasting environments.
Sir James Stirling-Maxwell is remembered for opening up part of the Pollok House grounds to the people of Glasgow in 1911. He also secured the first Conservation Agreement with the National Trust of Scotland in 1939, covering an area of the parkland (Haynes 2016: 18). In 1966, ten years after his death, his daughter, Anne Maxwell Macdonald gifted Pollok House, its collections and 146 hectares of the estate to the City of Glasgow – the basis for the present Country Park, established in 1980.
In the early 21st century, Pollok Park has a strong identity as a 'destination park' and is the largest area of green space within Glasgow, valued for its amenity value, major cultural and sporting heritage and environmental importance (eg. O'Brien 2010, Tierney 2008). In 1983, the Burrell Museum was completed to become an important visitor attraction in its own right, alongside Pollok House and its grounds. In the late 20th and early 21st century, the construction of the M77 elicited strong protests, as did plans for an outdoor adventure park in North Wood (which did not come to fruition). In 2007, Pollok Country Park was recognised with Britain's Best Park Award and in 2008, it was awarded Europe's Best Park. From around this time, archaeological investigations and standing building survey in the grounds have provided valuable detail on sites and early built fabric at Pollok Park, together with better sequencing of Pollok House itself and the stable courtyard (Mitchell 2009).