Queens Cross

Another lunch break, another walk. This time I ventured slightly further than usual all the way up to Queens Cross and back and found two caches along the way.

In 2004 I was on a business trip in London and was waiting in the reception area of a large IT company for an important meeting. Whilst I was waiting a large television was showing the mornings news on mute. After a few moments something caught my attention and I started watching. I was soon asking the receptionist to turn on the audio as there had been a major explosion in Glasgow. The Stockline Plastics Factory explosion.

Today I visited the Park & Grab : Maryhill Road cache which is located just outside the perimeter of a memorial to those who died in the disaster. I would probably never have visited this had it not been for the cache, but I'm glad it gave me a reason to do so. The memorial is just a small area of the original site of the Stockline factory. It's is a simple circle surrounded by standing stones each of which has been dedicated to someone who lost their life on that day. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of Maryhill Road, neighbouring businesses and a shopping centre, this small memorial is a small peaceful place and one which for some reason I found quite moving. The cache was simple to locate and has sensibly been kept outwith the memorial space.

Continuing, I made my way up to Queens Cross and to the Queens Cross Church. This building was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh whilst he was still working for Honeyman and Keppie and was completed in 1899. It ceased it's function as a church in the 1970's and is now quite appropriately the home of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and is open to the public as a tourist attraction and tearoom.

It is just outside this church, often called The Mackintosh Church that the next cache was located. The Mackintosh Church cache is very easy to find and the clue given is very specific about where and what to look for. However, the location is bounded on all sides by busy roads and on each there are traffic lights which make the GZ very exposed. Careful timing was required and several attempts before I had the cache in hand and a short walk to a less exposed location was necessary in order to sign the log without being observed.

By now I was out of time and had to head straight back to work, but these two caches plus the one I logged earlier in the day brought my total to three.

2 out of 2