Scottish Goth Resources

Due to Scotland not being necessarily as big as some of the cities in the US, it's often difficult for the Scottish spookster to find goth shops and clubs in a new place; indeed, it's nearly impossible in some places (looking at you, Dundee). As a result I've decided to compile a list of all the resources I know of in the main Scottish cities for goths and alternative folks -

 

GLASGOW

Club Nights
Asylum @ QMU, last Saturday of every month.
Cathouse Rock Club @ 15 Union Street, various club nights.
Cryotec @ Classic Grand, first Thursday of every month.
Danse Macabre @ Classic Grand, first Thursday of every month.

Alternative Bars
Nice and Sleasy, 421 Sauchiehall Street.
Solid Rock Cafe, 19-23 Hope Street.

Shops
Cyber Alternative Clothing, 107 King's Court, King Street.
Hellfire Couture, 46 Queen Street.
Inferno and Wonderland (same owner), 86 Queen Street and 72 Queen Street respectively.
Osiris, 51 Queen Street.

Good Secondhand and Vintage Shops
Starry Starry Night, 19 Dowanside Lane (just off Byer's road).
Mr Ben Retro Clothing, 101 King's Court, King Street.

Places to Visit
Glasgow Necropolis, Cathedral Square, Castle St (open days and tours available). 


Other
Glasgow Ubiquitous E. Steampunk Society (G.U.E.S.S.) - not a goth society de jure, but somehow filled with goths anyway.

 

INVERNESS

Shops
Beauty Box - Inverness Victorian Market.
Far Fetched - 8 Drummond St, Town Centre.

DUNDEE

Club Nights
Beat Generator @ 70 North Lindsay Street (various gig nights). 
Distorted @ DUSA, Dundee University Campus, every second Friday.
Kage @ 4 St. Andrew's Lane (various club nights).

EDINBURGH

Club Nights
Ascension @ Jekyll and Hyde, 112 Hanover Street, every second Saturday of the month.

Shops
Underground Nation, 41 Candlemaker Row.

Alternative bars
Jekyll and Hyde, 112 Hanover Street.
Frankenstein, 26 George IV Bridge.



ATTENTION - I will attempt to update this page as and when any changes to the below clubs, bars and shops take place, and when I find a new goth-friendly establishment. Some of these resources aren't necessarily goth oriented, but have been included as they may be of interest.

I currently only have more details for resources in Glasgow and Dundee due to having lived in both locations (Edinburgh is patchy as I usually only get to make day trips there and know little of the clubbing scene, and Inverness I only know about through word of mouth), and hope to get resources up for other cities soon. I also hope to do reviews on each of the establishments and club nights featured below in future, which I will link to in future when completed.

If you notice that any of this information is out of date or have a suggestion, please let me know!
 

Bothwell Castle and Elena, with extra outfit post

The weather has been so nice here in Scotland that I'd be forgiven for mistaking it for the South of France. The heat tires me out something awful, and my wardrobe is all but useless, but regardless I just love the warmth (not without sun cream, though. Got to have sun cream). 

The lovely Elena.

I took a trip with Elena to the nearby Bothwell Castle for a picnic recently, and on a whim decided to mix up my outfit post with a more unusual setting. Irritatingly, I've noticed blogger deleted my last outfit post - no idea why, but it's really annoying. Blogger has been causing me too many problems recently with deleted posts (you guys may have also noticed an older post of mine reappearing as new - how this happened, I know not), and I've been considering shifting over entirely to another service; until then, I'll rewrite it so you guys can see it properly.





Bothwell Castle is a lovely medieval sandstone castle from the 13th century (apparently the largest from then in Scotland!), which I haven't been inside for years. Despite it being started in the 1200s, building was halted by the Wars of Independence (apparently King Edward I of England himself laid siege to it!), but it still remains a valuable example of medieval architecture.

This outfit, like a lot of mine, relies heavily on the shorts/tank top combination (it's so comfy and versatile that I keep coming back to it), but the feature of note is the hand me down jacket from my brother that I finally remembered to put badges on. I'm tempted to stick on a few patches on it as well, but as I value versatility in my wardrobe they likely won't be permanent and will be removable in case I change my mind or need to smarten up the jacket.



Once she got the hang of my camera, Elena took so many good photos of me that I was spoilt for choice.

• Shorts - River Island
• Necklaces - both gifts (bat one from Osiris in Glasgow)
• Hair clip - Claires
• Boots - Office, in the post Christmas sales
• Jacket - Hand me down from my brother
• Badges - assorted
• Parasol - Amazon 

It also marked my first proper outing for my parasol! I ordered this beauty back in June, but only got to use it now due to the changeable weather here. The battenburg lace is really pretty, and mixing it up with more punk and deathrock inspired clothing makes me wonder about parasols in a similar vein. Maybe stretching a pair of ripped tights across the surface of the parasol, or adding badges or slogans?

It was wonderful seeing Elena again, who, as she studies down in Auld Reekie*, and we both have such full schedules, I rarely get to see during term. We can talk about life, friends, politics, ethics, periods, love and anything together, and she is one of the people I love most in the world. Whilst I have missed friends from uni terribly over the holidays, I have appreciated the ability to see old ones that uni has separated me from.

In love with my friends and the entire world.

Anyway, it's back onto srs bzns topics on the next post! I'm still trying to write up tonnes of posts like a madwoman for queuing, but I've got a lot of other things to do before I go back to uni. A lot of you may have seen posts (finished or not) that have been posted and quickly taken down. This is because I have been reorganising myself on here and usually do it when tired, and I am a tit.


Say safe!



Fee



* This is Edinburgh, to those not acquainted with scots slang/inter-city politics.

West End Festival: Pick of the Month

The West End Festival has recently arrived in Glasgow, and I'm really looking forward to it! The Mardi Gras Parade (details in a previous post) was excellent, and there's a lot of other interesting events to come. I'd have posted about this sooner, but my internet's been doolally recently. Here's my pick of the month -

Literature, Art and Drama

• Hairy MacLairy & Friends (Thursday 13th June)
• Bard in the Park: Othello (various dates)
• Glasgow & The Clyde (various dates)

Culture

• Introduction to Buddhism and Meditation (Friday 14th June)
•  The 13th Japanese Matsuri (Saturday 15th June)
• Japan Fair! (Sunday 23rd June)
• Al-Furquan Mosque Open weekends (various dates)

Music

• Peter Murphy (Saturday 15th June)
• David Bowie Night (Saturday 15th June)
• The Shiverin' Sheikh's & The New Piccadillys (Thursday 27th June)
• The Retrospex (Sunday 30th June)

Other

• Waulking the Tweed
• Vintage Bus Service

I'd give a wee explanation as to why I chose each of them, but I'm running late and the West End Festival event pages for each of them will undoubtedly do so better than me. Ta ta for now!




Fee

West End Festival: Mardi Gras

 WARNING: Picture heavy post!

Yesterday I went to Glasgow's West End Festival Mardi Gras, and damn it was good fun. It was almost going to be cancelled this year, but thanks to a sponsorship deal was brought back in full force.

I'd actually found out entirely by chance that the parade was on the night before, and dragged my mum along with me. Thanks to the combination of concrete, sun and lots of sweaty people, Byres Road was ridiculously hot, but despite that it was an awesome day.

Taking part was a crazy variety of groups; charities, the Conservatoire, dance groups, cultural arts societies, CND, nurseries, steampunks, drummers, plus many more I forget.