On Sunday 29 April I attended an event called “Enoch was a Woman: a river walk”, led by artist Lucy Livingstone, as part of the Glasgow International Festival, designed to reinstate the reputation of a Glasgow figure now only represented in a temple of shopping.

It was a truly magical, atmospheric walk, that saw us trace the path of the Molendinar, Glasgow’s hidden river, which gradually seemed to merge with St Thenew herself. We began at the Bridge of Sighs, closing our eyes to imagine the river below, then slowly wound our way down over the course of two hours to the Clyde, through backroads and building sites, across new builds, carparks and railway tracks, along the approximate path of the hidden river, as Lucy gradually revealed the story of St Thenew, Scotland’s first rape victim and the mother of Glasgow.

The river emerged above ground only once during the walk, behind bars and choked with waste, and we tied some clooties (clothes) to its railings. Down at the Clyde, it was strangely absent – an empty drain opened onto the river, and three puzzled seagulls perched on the sidings stared back. Lucy told us that perhaps the river was finding other ways out, through the foundations of buildings.

We ended at the site of the vanished St Thenew’s well, a small overgrown and unacknowledged garden by the Clyde, just down from St Enoch’s Square. Lucy told us the gate was magically unlocked the day before when she trialled the walk. By this time the sun was starting to dip. We tied some more clooties to railings and a small stunted tree.

The walk was very moving: lots of space to think, not too much information , and a very creative approach to telling Thenew’s tale – as a girl behind me said, it’s so lovely just being led round the city like this – it did indeed feel like we were giving ourselves up to something as we walked, and I like to think it was the river, drawing us along beneath the concrete.

We’re pleased to announce that the Mapping Memorials to Women Scotland project has received a message of support from First Minister Alex Salmond. The project, developed by Glasgow Women’s Library and Women’s History Scotland, aims to record memorials to women across Scotland at womenofscotland.org.uk.

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

“Throughout the centuries, Scots have paid tribute to the remarkable achievements of women in both small and grand ways. From plaques and cairns to statues and buildings, all commemorate the contribution that women have made to Scottish life, from the most humble to the most generous. It is a rich and fascinating story. This project is a very fitting one to be launched at the time of International Women’s Day and I would urge all those interested in the achievements of Scottish women both at home and abroad to help with some detective work and build the Women of Scotland website into a very useful database and resource we are all proud of.”

The site already contains over 75 records but the aim is to build on this base to create a comprehensive national database.

This memorial stone dedicated to the folk heroine Lilias of Ancrum is just one of many already recorded on the Women of Scotland site.

From Shetland to the Borders, the Western Isles to Fife, women have made a huge contribution to national life in all fields and many are commemorated in various ways in towns and cities and in small communities. A number are featured in The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Examples found so far range from plaques and cairns to statues, streets, named buildings and stained glass windows. All commemorate the contribution that women have made to Scottish life. It is a rich and fascinating story.

Over the past year Girlguiding Scotland has helped to seek out memorials to add to the site, but now more help is needed. The website is relaunching on 10th March, and we are calling on people across Scotland to go out and find memorials in their local area, and record them on the Women of Scotland website.

Visit womenofscotland.org.uk for more information about how to get involved.

You can also follow the project on Facebook and Twitter, or share your images of memorials with our Flickr group.

This group promotes healthy living and the chance to explore your own area as never before with your very own Personal History Tour. As individual as you are! A great opportunity for you to reflect and also to encourage physical activity.

We all want to feel better in our lives and improve both our physical and mental wellbeing.

When I was growing up, they used to say this abandoned building was haunted! I would be so scared when walking by it…

Here you will tell us your story through your eyes. This is your area, your home. As well as your memories, we want your own account of what life has been like for you in Pollokshields and Govanhill.

Some of the best times during my childhood was with my cousins and friends in Maxwell Park…

There will be a series of 10 walks where not only will you share your experiences but we will also capture and record the places that mean something to you. Interested?

For more information or to take part, please contact Tabassum at the Pollokshields Health Shop on 0141 420 3415

This project is Supported by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

This event will take place from 2.30pm-3.30pm, Monday 26th September, setting off from Reading Lasses Bookshop.

Wigtown Women's History Walk

This event will take place from 2-2.30pm on Monday 26th September at the Reading Lasses Bookshop.

Wigtown Walk Launch, March 2010

Jean Girdwood (left) doing research for Women Make History

The staff, leaders and my peers have been instrumental in promoting Glasgow Women’s History to every corner of Glasgow. We were encouraged to research both historical and living Glasgow Women who individually made a difference to the city both in the arts, sciences, education, politics etc, and not forgetting the ordinary or should I say extraordinary women of Glasgow who were/are an integral part of the development and history of Glasgow.

I was immediately impressed by the very positive attitude of everyone at these meetings and the ideas were flowing. A development group was formed for the project and there were about 10 of us. It was decided that we would all be involved in researching these Glasgow women and we put a large map up so that we could highlight which area of the city these women came from and attached written info about them to the map. After a few meetings it was agreed that we should create a walking tour around the west end of the city and relate the info we had gathered on the women.

This walk was all about the history of Glasgow from car designers to women in education at the beginning of the 19th century and their part in making degree courses available to all women. The suffragettes and their great struggle to gain the vote for women, women in the arts including artists, writers and designers.

West End Women's Heritage Walk outside the University of Glasgow

I am one of the guides for these walks and the most memorable part for me was the surprise of the participants at the facts about these Glasgow women which made the research even more worthwhile and also noting how much they all enjoyed the walk. We had a group of 20 for the first booked walk, and I was feeling a little apprehensive but I need not have fretted because I discovered as we were walking and talking that quite a number of the group were making comments e.g. “I didn’t know that”, “I must find out more about that”, “I never heard of her before”, “we should tell others”, this feedback inspired me greatly and still does. This has been evident on all the walks I have done up till now and I know it will continue.

I have tried to give a little flavour of my work with this group which is of course ongoing. The library collection and the services which they offer are vital to the people and the City of Glasgow. The library has had a number of enquiries from other organizations who have either been on the walk or have heard about what the library is doing and they meet with them so that they can set up similar walks in their own towns or other projects.

The volunteering opportunities within the library are invaluable. I personally have benefited greatly from my work with the group and have an even greater respect and interest in Glasgow and its history and what’s still to come. All of the other volunteers whom I have met agree that their lives have been truly enhanced and made richer by their involvement with the Women’s Library and this is ongoing.

Glasgow Women’s Library demonstrates imagination and innovation, changes lives, brings people together and is very creative. Fun, fun, fun is to be had at the library and this is the best therapy of all.

Working collectively on the project for the West End walk pulled me into a world of research. Investigating information was a bit like digging for research treasure, I could easily while away an afternoon in the archives looking for the nugget of a story. I found it genuinely empowering and inspiring how these voices and stories could cross decades and strike a chord with women in the 21st century.

Learning about these strong, defiant, groundbreaking women has helped shape my outlook on women’s history as a whole, and, consequently, given me a better understanding of my own identity.

Kirsty Hood leads the launch of the Women of the Merchant City Walk in 2009

From originally just planning to be part of the research team, I ended up being a tour guide on the walks themselves, an achievement that wouldn’t have happened without the supportive, trusting and encouraging environment that surrounds the project, perpetuated by all the staff team at the library and by fellow history detectives. Mostly undeterred by Glasgow’s weather, I’ve now lead a number of walks. It’s a heartening experience when those who come on the tour can identify with the women we discuss and, in turn, be inspired by them.

I’m now working within Glasgow Museums as a Learning Assistant (with a new role doing live interpretation) and working on the second tour to come from the library – the Merchant City walk.

*written in 2008

This event is now fully booked.

This Doors Open weekend we are thrilled to be launching the third in our ground-breaking series of free Women’s Heritage Walk maps. This map charts some of the highlights of our Necropolis Women’s Heritage Walk and plots the resting places and histories of heroines lost at sea, ‘City Mothers’ who gave their all for Glasgow, witch-finders, the Queen of The Gypsies and other ‘monstrous regiments’ of women.

Sunday 18 September, 1pm to 3pm (free)
Please note this event is fully booked and the waiting list is full. You can join our mailing list to be kept up to date on future events run by Glasgow Women’s Library.

The launch will be marked by a guided walk with some of the map’s researchers and its editor, Heather Middleton. A tour that digs the dirt on Victorian society, unearths women’s achievements and exhumes the history of some of the women buried in the Glasgow Necropolis.

For your copy of the map pick one up on your next visit to GWL or download it from our website from Monday 19 September.

This event is now fully booked

If you are not already a member of the library you can join here and it is completely free.

For Glasgow in the Making we are holding our pioneering women’s heritage walk that reveals a hidden history of the West End of Glasgow: pipe-smoking forewomen, revolting schoolmistresses, and the unique car made by and for women. A unique and inspiring insight into the hitherto unsung women who made the West End.

Friday 16 September, 2pm to 4pm
Tickets are £7.50, available from the GCVS website.

Followed by refreshments and discussion at the Albany Learning and Conference Centre. Bookings will be taken through GCVS, click here to visit their events page and make your booking. Bookings can be taken from Tuesday 16 August at 2pm.

“On Sunday, I joined the GWL West End walking tour and am now a signed up fan! What an inspiring and enlightening evening. Really fascinating. The guides were wonderful and made it so interesting and entertaining. Have been telling all my friends to go since.”

Our West End Women’s Heritage podcast walk is also available to download here for just £3.

Mrs Boone at Captured Hearts event 2011

Women Make History is one of GWL’s most popular programmes. Lots of women have been involved in its projects including developing women’s heritage walks, maps and podcasts. These regular, learner-led workshops will be a forum for all women who have an interest in women’s lives, work and experiences in the past. The workshop sessions will include visits, talks, discussions, lots of hands-on activities and the opportunity to learn and share information with others on how to become ‘women’s history detectives’.

Oral Histories Part 2

Thursday 8 September, 6pm to 7.30pm (£3/free)
Following on from our successful session in June there will be a chance to practice recording and to have a go at transcription. New comers welcome to join us.

Visit to the Scottish Screen Archives

Thursday 13 October, 2pm to 4pm (£3/free)
BOOKING ESSENTIAL! We are arranging transport from the library at 1.30pm, so if you haven’t booked on there might not be space available in the transportation.
Our popular drop-in Women Make History group will be going out and about again, this time visiting the amazing Scottish Screen archives, home of the filmed records of Scotland’s social, cultural and industrial history and the lives of ordinary Scots across the generations. This sister archive has 32,000 items including documentaries, newsreels, television and public information films and advertising; we’ll have a tour and a taste of their films about and by women.

16 Days of Action

Thursday 1 December, 6pm to 7.30pm (£3/free)
The women’s movement has had many successes over the decades, although often the ongoing experiences of discrimination can make it feel as though little ground has been made. This event will highlight the violence against women campaign in Glasgow and Scotland, and claim it as one of the real success stories of the movement. Using some of the documents from our unique collections at GWL we will chart the VAW campaign’s growth over the past 30 years. We will explore its influences in both Government and public attitudes towards the continuing phenomenon of men’s violence against women and children, with discussion about what the future could hold.

Booking is essential. To register your interest please complete the quick booking form below or call us on 0141 248 9969. If you are not already a member of the library you can join here and it is completely free.