Callanish (Glasgow)

 park, sculpture

"Callanish" is a sculpture and landscaping project commissioned by Strathclyde University, designed by the the late sculptor Gerald Laing, and it was completed in 1974. It consists of sixteen iron girders inserted into the ground which mimic the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis. Because the girders were designed to naturally corrode over time, it has always been jokingly nicknamed "Steelhenge". The landscaped area was intended to provide some relief from the concrete jungle of academic buildings the rapidly expanding University of Strathclyde was erecting in the 1970s.

Probably quite stunning at the time when it stood on its own within a grassless wasteland where slum tenements recently had been cleared - there is a good picture of the sculpture on TheGlasgowStory.com which shows it back in 1974, before any of the area was landscaped or any of the surrounding buildings went up and it looks far more effective than it does now - the SIPBS complex completely obscures it now from Cathedral Street.

Still, the gardens are beautifully kept, and make for a nice oasis in the centre of a chaotic city.