Ruchazie ( ) is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. It is situated to the north-east of the city, bordered by Craigend and

Garthamlock Garthamlock is a suburb in the north-east of the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde. Provanhall is the nearest neighbourhood to the east; Craigend is directly to the west with Hogganfield Park and Ruchazie beyond ...

to the east and the open ground of Hogganfield Park and Lethamhill Golf Course to the north. Ruchazie is separated from

Cranhill Cranhill is an inner city district and housing scheme in the north east of Glasgow, Scotland. Cranhill was developed from public funding in the early 1950s and was originally, chiefly composed of four-storey tenement blocks surrounding a patch ...

to the south and

Riddrie Riddrie ( gd, An Ruadh Ruigh) is a north-eastern district of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies on the A80 Cumbernauld Road. Location and amenities Riddrie is a residential area mainly consisting of 1920s semi-detached houses, originally built as counc ...

to the west by the M8 motorway (''Junctions 11 and 12'' of which directly serve the area), previously the route of the

Monkland Canal The Monkland Canal was a canal designed to bring coal from the mining areas of Monklands to Glasgow in Scotland. In the course of a long and difficult construction process, it was opened progressively as short sections were completed, from 177 ...

Across Ruchazie from Gartloch Road - geograph

A small hamlet existed in the area from at least the 18th to the mid-20th century near to the Gartcraig Colliery, located where the local housing office now stands. There was also a productive brick works at Gartcraig from the 1870s to the 1920s, and two

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

estates, ''Croftcroighn'' and ''Craigend''. Developed for housing as part of the city's 'Greater

Easterhouse Easterhouse is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, east of the city centre on land gained from the county of Lanarkshire as part of an expansion of Glasgow before the Second World War. The area is on high ground north of the River Clyde and south ...

' programme in the 1950s, mostly consisting of tenements, the neighbourhood was at the centre of the

Glasgow Ice Cream Wars The ice cream wars were turf wars in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1980s between rival criminal organisations selling drugs and stolen goods from ice cream vans. Van operators were involved in frequent violence and intimidation tac ...

in the 1980s which culminated in the death of a local family when their flat was set on fire, and also suffered from the habitual territorial gang violence in the area, with rival 'young teams' not only from the surrounding schemes but within the fairly small Ruchazie itself, with a gang from each of its three clusters of streets. The area has experienced considerable regeneration and improvement in the early 21st century through Tower Homes LHO and Ruchazie Housing Association. Ruchazie Community Centre - geograph

Ruchazie is the only district in Glasgow that does not have a public house. In August 2009, construction of a Soccerworld five-a-sides complex situated on ground between Croftcroighn Road and the M8 motorway (formerly Whitehill Secondary Former Pupils F.C. playing fields) was completed and opened to the public. The facility includes a soft play area, female-only gym and a licensed bar. There were two churches in the area: Ruchazie Parish Community ChurchRuchazie finds a new community spirit, brick by brick
Evening Times, 13 May 2019 and the Roman Catholic St Philip's, which closed in 2014. The local schools had already closed and been merged with others in the early 2000s. Singer Jim Diamond grew up in ruchazie and attended St. Philips RC primary school . In 2016,

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of the S ...

outlined masterplans for the development of the Greater Easterhouse area (including Ruchazie) over the next 20 years.

Toponymy

Ruchazie is now generally pronounced with a /z/, but used to be pronounced /rʌxeɪjɪ/. This is due to the original Scots spelling, Ruchaȝie, containing the letter

yogh The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots Language, Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar consonant , velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular G, Insular form of the letter ...

, was later erroneously confused with the

tailed z Z (or z) is the 26th and last Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual names in English are English ...

References

{{Areas of Glasgow Areas of Glasgow Housing estates in Glasgow