River and the City

The River Clyde has always played a hugely important role for the city of Glasgow and its surrounds. It has offered its changing residents water, a means of transport and access to the city and a platform for trade and industry. As the well known saying goes- 'Glasgow made the Clyde and the Clyde made Glasgow.'

Evidence of pre-historic fishing communities exists with Stone Age canoes having been unearthed along the banks of the river. Later it is believed that Celtic Druids traded with the Romans who travelled to and from Glasgow using The Clyde. In the sixth century St. Mungo, Glasgow's patron saint, established his church on a tributary of The Clyde.

Glasgow's situation on The Clyde led to the city becoming a hub of trade and later shipbuilding. By the seventeenth century trade in things such as tobacco took place although the accessibility of the city to larger vessels was restricted by the shallow depth of the river in parts. Deepened in the early ninteenth century, the Clyde then enabled glasgow to be known as 'the second city of The Empire' with international trade increasing vastly.

The Clyde's importance to Glasgow changed in the twentieth century from facilitating trade to becoming home to the shipbuilding industry in Scotland. Although it has declined in recent years, it still exists and the banks of the river are now also being redeveloped with an additional residential and commercial character.

Click on the buttons at the top of the page to find out more about The Clyde, The River Kelvin, The Carts and The Canal.