PROVAND’s LORDSHIP: The Oldest House in Glasgow
It’s interesting, my recent draw to Scotland. Time will tell, as to why…and ‘time’ is the context of this energy report on a spontaneous visit to the oldest house in Glasgow.
We had 24 hours in the city, to ease out our bodies and ease in our minds after walking the West Highland Way. A slow aimless amble took us, randomly, to the Glasgow Necropolis on a hill overlooking the city. A Victorian cemetery: it is the final resting place of fifty thousand individuals, represented by approximately 3,500 monuments - and is strangely fascinating and odd. Adjacent, is Glasgow Cathedral: an impressive Gothic building with an interesting past. Construction began in 1136 and took about 350 years to finish. It has been both Catholic and Protestant, surviving the Protestant Reformation of 1560 virtually intact. Technically beautiful, I found it an unsettling energy and didn’t loiter.
But over the road was an altogether different experience: Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow - which has recently reopened after a £1.6 million repair and improvement programme. Provand's Lordship was built in 1471 and is one of only four surviving medieval buildings in Glasgow. And best of all: it has an amazing energy :)
Ducking my head to enter the building, I am reminded of my home in Dorset. It has a familiarity inside, but its more so the feel of the place. The energy is clear, yet layered into a rich history. Initially built as the manse of the Master of the Chapel and Hospital St Nicholas, it has also been: a notable domestic home - with rumours of a visit by Mary, Queen of Scots; housed a pub on the ground floor known as ‘The Old Castle Tavern’; and has been home to spirit dealers, bell hangers, gas fitters, milliners, hairdressers, green grocers, tobacconists and confectioners. It gains its name from being the residence of the Canon of Provan (a district in East Glasgow) who held the title of Lord Provan. Rescued by a group of Glasgow citizens, they raised the money to purchase the property, leading to its restoration today.
But what awed me was the energetic balance to it: every room, of equally lovely energy…no dark corners. It was a balance I recognised and it wasn’t long before I encountered the spirit of place (this level of care and love could not have happened, I believe, without an active and engaged spirit of place). Entering the back room on the first floor - which I felt was once a kitchen - I am drawn to a powerful presence in the corner. Calling my friend over: she could feel it too. It felt wonderful: giving and full of richness. When I returned to the same area a few minutes later, it had moved…confirmation to me, of a resident energetic custodian (other entities in properties have a different feel, in my experience). And then I connected again with it. Male in energy (and whom, I’m later told by my spiritual guide, was a former occupant) his care and enthusiasm, is tangible: ‘Tell people about it,’ he said to me. ‘We welcome visitors,’ he emphasised.
If you are in Glasgow with a spare half hour or so, go! It is a wonderful restoration - an example to us all - with a kindness and wealth to it. A token to the past which sits energetically in the present. A bit like Glasgow, really.
I loved it.
Love Delilah
Visited: 22.04.24