Sighthill is a neighbourhood in the
Scottish city of
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
. It is situated north of the
River Clyde
The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...
and is part of the wider
Springburn district in the north of the city. It is bordered to the north by
Cowlairs, to the east by the
Springburn Bypass road and the
Royston neighbourhood, to the west by the
Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line (running into
Queen Street Station) and to the south by the
Townhead
Townhead (, ) is a district within the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of Glasgow's oldest areas, and contains two of its major surviving medieval landmarks – Glasgow Cathedral and the Provand's Lordship.
In medieval times, Townhead was ...
interchange of the
M8 Motorway.
The district is primarily residential and from the mid-1960s consisted of a
housing estate
A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...
split into two sub-areas – Pinkston to the south and Fountainwell to the north – each with five 20-storey 'slab'
tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. ...
s, plus seven 5-storey
maisonette blocks and five rows of tenements in between. Most of these buildings were demolished during the early 21st century and replaced by new housing with associated infrastructure and landscaping.
History

Sighthill formed part of the Springburn Comprehensive Development Area (CDA), and was one of the 20 CDA's around the city where slum housing was completely demolished and replaced by new concrete housing estates based on contemporary architectural practices. Designed by Crudens Ltd, the housing scheme was built by Glasgow Corporation Housing Department between 1964 and 1969 as part of the city's housing replacement programme – the existing housing in the area itself, consisting of tenements on Springburn Road and just off it at Huntingdon Place, was demolished in the process. Much of the land used for the Pinkston sector was known as the '
Soda Waste', derelict ground on which the
United Alkali Company's
St Rollox Chemical Works, founded by
Charles Tennant
Charles Tennant (3 May 1768 – 1 October 1838) was a Scottish chemist and industrialist. He discovered Calcium hypochlorite, bleaching powder and founded an industrial dynasty.
Biography
Charles Tennant was born at Laigh Corton, Alloway, Ayrs ...
and at one time the largest chemical manufacturer in the world, used to dump waste chemicals (particularly
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is toxic, corrosive, and flammable. Trace amounts in ambient atmosphere have a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Swedish chemist ...
, a byproduct of the
Leblanc process) until its closure in 1964. The Chemical Works was located on the north bank 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 ...
, immediately east of
Port Dundas. The Fountainwell sector was built on a farm of the same name, to the south of
Sighthill Cemetery which opened in 1840. Within it stands the memorial to
John Baird and
Andrew Hardie, the leaders of the 1820
Radical War otherwise known as the 1820 Insurrection.
William Mossman and his sculptor sons are buried here.
The Pinkston power station, which had supplied power to the city's tram system and the
Subway, was closed in 1975, and its signature
cooling tower
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream, to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove heat and cool the ...
which dominated the city's skyline was demolished in 1977, with the rest of the complex being removed the year after.
The Sighthill estate later suffered from stigma, as high-rise living went out of fashion. It suffered from low demand since the mid-1970s, despite its proximity to the city centre. Because of its low occupancy rate, Sighthill (along with nearby
Red Road) was selected in the late 1990s as a temporary housing location for refugees and asylum seekers. As a result, the neighbourhood had one of the most diverse ethnic makeups in Scotland.
In 2005, letting was suspended in the Fountainwell side of Sighthill as new landlords,
Glasgow Housing Association considered the estate's future. The decision was eventually made that Fountainwell should be demolished. The first two blocks were demolished in July 2008
[ with the three remaining blocks following in November 2009.][ Sighthill Primary School was also demolished after the tower blocks due to an arson attack shortly after it closed.
The fate of the five remaining Pinkston blocks was debated further. After a campaign by local residents, at least two of the blocks were to be retained and refurbished by Glasgow Housing Association, with three being demolished or sold to private developers. However, Glasgow then bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics and were added to the hosting shortlist, but the successful city had to have its Athletes Village prepared – this resulted in the total demolition of Sighthill's towers to accommodate a new low-rise redevelopment.][ The bid was lost, but regeneration continued. The Sighthill 'Transformational Regeneration Area' includes a new school campus, landscaped green areas and better connectivity to the Forth and Clyde Canal, in addition to approximately 1,000 new housing units for sale, private rental and social rental (much of it marketed as 'NorthBridge' by developers Keepmoat). Sighthill Bridge over the M8 Motorway, first planned in 2018, opened in 2023. The bridge replaced an earlier smaller pedestrian bridge and is known locally as ''Rusty Bridge'' due to the use of Cor-Ten steel in its construction. It has a weight of 1,000 tonnes, a span of spanning 74m (80yds) and has been landscaped with thousands of plants and seating areas.
There is also an active ]Community Council
A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain.
In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. ...
consisting of several committed residents who aim to deal with issues affecting the Sighthill neighbourhood.
Sighthill stone circle
Sighthill hosts the first astronomically aligned stone circle
A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...
built in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
for 3,000 years, guided by Duncan Lunan. Built at the highest point of Sighthill Park, the stone circle has a vantage point over the surrounding areas. There are 17 stones in the circle – with 16 forming a circle across, and the largest four-tonne stone in the centre.[ The Sighthill megalith was intended as a tribute to both the ancient megalith builders and the scientists who discovered their significance. It was renovated in the late 2010s along with the rest of the district.
]
Tower blocks
Each block contained 228 flats (i.e. 2,280 residences in total across the 10 blocks); essentially each block was two towers, each with 19 habitable floors of six flats in a mirror-image of the other and a separate communal entrance, joined together at a central wall. They were tall.
Fountainwell
In order of Demolition
*Eagle Heights (2-4 Fountainwell Place) Cruden 1 (demolished: 13 July 2008)
*Barony Heights (16-18 Fountainwell Place) Cruden 2 (demolished: 13 July 2008)[
*Tennant Heights (37-49 Fountainwell Avenue) Cruden 3 (demolished: 29 November 2009)]
*Phoenix Heights (6-8 Fountainwell Square) Cruden 5 (demolished: 29 November 2009)[
*St. Rollox Heights (2-4 Fountainwell Terrace) Cruden 4 (demolished: 29 November 2009)][
]
Pinkston
*Parson Heights (16-18 Pinkston Drive) (demolished June 2013)
*Huntingdon Heights (17-19 Pinkston Drive) (demolished September/October 2013)
*Pinkston Heights (3-5 Pinkston Drive) (demolished April 2014)
*Crawfurd Heights (31-35 Pinkston Drive) (demolished March–June 2016)
*Hartfield Heights (32-34 Pinkston Drive) (demolished July–October 2016)[
]
See also
* Glasgow tower blocks
* List of tallest voluntarily demolished buildings
* Towers in the park
References
External links
Sighthill Stone Circle
Sighthill Community Council (on Facebook)
Website of St Rollox, the local church
Website of St Mungo, the local chapel
{{Areas of Glasgow
Areas of Glasgow
Housing estates in Glasgow
Springburn