The De’il’s Plantin

Back in 2007, I was working on producing a Google Earth placemark file for the BSD Earth Energies Group website, of places on the ‘Glasgow Network of Aligned Sites’, based on the books ‘Glasgow’s Secret Geometry’ and ‘Forgotten Footsteps’ by the late Harry Bell.

As I was putting the finishing touches to the file, I came across a press release about May Miles Thomas, an artist and film-maker who had received a Creative Scotland award to produce a project based around the books. Excited by this synchronicity, I sent her a copy of the file to help her get started.

Some three years later, she has produced a fantastic blog called ‘The Devil’s Plantation’ telling of her adventures, together with an interactive video tour of the network. I found this quite by accident, when doing a Google search for my own name  to find out if my meta-tags for this blog were working correctly (she mentions me on trip four).

I haven’t checked out the Glasgow Network for a while, and this reminds me that I need to do some more work on the  placemark file. Since the imagery of the area has improved in Google Earth, many of the alignments don’t actually line up very well at all. Maybe it’s time I did a bit more exploring of the network myself, now armed with my new handheld GPS unit to plot precise locations. Maybe I should apply for a Creative Scotland award too…!

UPDATE 2022: I have managed to obtain permission from Harry Bell’s family to reconstruct the old websites, updating and develop the material. Please direct your attention to the new  Glasgow’s Secret Geometry website.

Grahame Gardner
Latest posts by Grahame Gardner (see all)

2 thoughts on “The De’il’s Plantin

  1. Thanks May! I’m still reading through your blog – there’s so much material there; it’s a great resource. Your journey through the Glasgow Network is something that I’ve always wanted to do myself but have never managed to find the time, so it’s fantastic to be able to live it vicariously through your eyes.

  2. Your site’s great. I’ll need to spend more time perusing.

    Just wanted to say thanks for the mention too – I should add you get a namecheck several times on my blog, not just on trip 4!

    best wishes,
    May

Leave a Reply