@thisismyglasgow Construction began about 1740 but wasn't completed until about 1756, I think — Glasgow at the time hadn't much experience in major public works, and the project kept running short of money!

@thisismyglasgow A sculpture detail for you: in 1752, George Anderson was paid £25 for carving the coat of arms on the pediment.

@ncdominie Well worth the money! 🙂

@thisismyglasgow It's a belter all right...

@ncdominie The one thing I want to know about it is to do with the fish. It looks like its been replaced, but the new carving looks like a cod rather than a salmon, and I've always wondered if this was true of the original one, too. If so, does it mean that the fish with the ring in its mouth wasn't always a salmon? I wonder about strange things sometimes!

@thisismyglasgow Jocelyn of Furness gives it as a salmon in his Life of Kentigern (chapter 36): https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/jocelyn-lifeofkentigern.asp, and that's the source for all the emblems that evolved into the Glasgow coat of arms.

@ncdominie Interesting. Thanks. There are a few Glasgow Coats of Arms where the outer salmon are replaced by other types of fish (notably dolphinfish on the Briggait), but the inner one is usually more consistent. This one is just a bit odd.

@thisismyglasgow It does make me wonder whether Anderson (or perhaps a restorer) was more familiar with stone than with fish...

@ncdominie That is certainly true of quite a few sculptures around Glasgow, and I have wondered if the 'troll' below the coat of arms on this church is just a very poorly rendered lion by someone who had never seen a lion before (or even a picture of one!).

@thisismyglasgow There used to be a #NotALion hashtag on Twitter which was a wonderful repository of lions sculpted or drawn by people who were really not very good at lions.