It took more than 25 years for the gift by Sir William Burrell of his huge art collection to the city of Glasgow to be turned into a reality in the form of a building which could properly display at least a proportion of his works of art. His gift, together with £250,000 for the construction of a gallery, specified that the building should be within four miles of Killearn and not less than 16 miles from the centre of Glasgow - he was concerned about the effect of industrial pollution and wanted the building to be in a rural setting. It was long after Burrell's death before the gift of the grounds of Pollok House, only five miles from the city centre, at least provided the sylvan setting Burrell sought.
The architects took the opportunity to make the parkland and the nearby trees a part of the display by skillful use of glass - the largest display area is like a "walk in the woods". It also cleverly incorporates two ancient stone arches (from 16th century Hornby Castle, in Yorkshire) into the building and inside three of the rooms are replicas of those in Burrell's home at Hutton Castle.
The huge display includes Chinese ceramics and pottery (a world-class collection), tapestries, stained glass (one of the best collections in the country), church art, Chinese jade, silver, bronzes, Persian and Indian rugs, Egyptian statuettes, Greek and Italian pottery, needlework, arms and armour and furniture. The stained glass is positioned facing south for maximum effect and the huge tapestries are in central galleries. Many of the Chinese objects are in the gallery which looks out onto the nearby trees.
And, of course, once you have toured the Burrell Collection, there is always the lovely Pollok Country Park and the gardens of Pollok House which have an attractive layout as you move from the formal gardens to the rose garden to the heathers and on to the woodland walks.
