A Brief History of the Club
Green Hollow Bowmen was founded as a club in October 1996. However, its origins go back to the winter of 1995.
At that time there was only one BLBS affiliated longbow-only club in Scotland: Highland Longbows way up north in the Inverness area. Around Glasgow the only option open to longbow archers looking for regular target shooting was to join a mainstream GNAS club where they would find themselves very much in the minority amid those using modern recurve and compound bows.
This was fine up to a point, but pleasant though the company of our curly- and wheelie-bow wielding friends could be, we longbow folk sometimes had the feeling that we were like bicycle enthusiasts who had accidentally wandered into a motorbike club. Some of us had a hankering for a more laid-back, sociable and above all traditional style of shooting – one as traditional as the equipment we favoured.
In the outdoor season such shooting was to be found. The British Longbow Society (BLBS) in Scotland under the leadership of Patrick Moriarty laid on several excellent meetings during the spring and summer months featuring traditional two-way target or clout rounds, gorgeous venues, good food and drink, great craic – what more could a longbowman ask? However, throughout the winter it seemed it was indoor shooting with our GNAS clubs or nothing.
Then, in the autumn of 1995, four local longbow archers realised that the opportunity to get in a little traditional archery over the winter months had been there all the time. The BLBS ran a winter Postal Portsmouth competition so the four entered as the Craigend Castle Company of Archers, meeting in the Craigend Field at Mugdock Country Park on a couple of Sundays a month throughout that winter. It was cold but it was fun, even though (or possibly especially since) the team eventually came thoroughly last in the competition. The seeds were sown.
The Craigend Castle Company of Archers
l. to r. Hugh and Laura McBrien, Mairi and Gary Nelson
During the following summer, Laura McBrien investigated the possibility of setting up a BLBS-affiliated club to meet at Mugdock Country Park. With help and advice from Patrick Moriarty and from Hugh Soar, then Secretary of the BLBS, Laura and her friend Aileen Thomson brought together a group of interested longbow people, mostly from local GNAS clubs Bearsden Archers and Clyde Arrows but with others of no fixed archery abode who were simply keen to have somewhere to play at longbows‘n’arrows. The staff of the Country Park proved helpful and encouraging, equipment was scrounged or borrowed, a meeting was held and Green Hollow Bowmen was (were?) born.
Our first bow-meeting was held on a wild, windy day in November `96. In fact it was so windy that our two-way double clout round had to be abandoned half way through, disappointing but wise given that some of the arrows were beginning to come back towards us when the wind caught them. Not an auspicious start then.
Our inaugural bow meeting – before the wind really got going.
Subsequent meetings went rather better. We entered teams for the Postal Portsmouth – the Eightballs, the Four Stooges and the Scarlet Ladies – and while none of us was exactly among the medal-winners come springtime, the club was well and truly established. There’s nothing quite like sharing a shooting line on a freezing February morning for promoting bonding and team-spirit (incidentally, have we mentioned our corporate team-building events service?...).
Since then, the club has continued to grow and flourish. Sadly, a handful of our founder members are no longer with us, but we continue to attract new blood, many coming to us as complete beginners and others from the modern archery world looking for a bit of traditional longbow fun.
Our planned catchment area of the Glasgow conurbation was soon proved unambitious – we’ve attracted members from as far away as Fraserburgh, Oban and Kirkcudbrightshire, and we have a sizeable contingent from Ayrshire. Indeed, we’ve even extended our activities into Burns country as in 2003 we were fortunate enough to gain a second shooting ground at Gardrum House in Fenwick, courtesy of Land Engineering Scotland Ltd. whose headquarters it is.
Members at the first Green Hollow Clout
So that’s the background to our club. One question may yet need answering – why are we called “Green Hollow Bowmen” and not “The Craigend Castle Company of Archers” if that’s where it all started? In fact the CCCofA and various other names were suggested for the club at that first meeting back in `96. In the end “Green Hollow Bowmen” was chosen because it describes to perfection not only our shooting ground in Craigend Field (it’s in a hollow and it’s very green), but also the Glasgow area from which we first aimed to draw our membership.
The old Dark-age British name for Glasgow was Glascau which can be translated as “green hollow”, and if you wonder why, try standing up by the Cathkin Bypass to the south of Glasgow to take in the marvellous view there out across the city. You’ll see that Glasgow is indeed in a hollow surrounded by green hills – the Cathkin Braes, the Fereneze Hills, the Gleniffer Braes, The Kilpatrick Hills with Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps visible beyond, the Campsie Fells, the Kilsyth Hills... but enough. We’ll leave the beauties of Scotland’s biggest city to the Tourist Board’s web-site – let’s get back to the longbows!
Green Hollow Bowmen Founder Members
Ian Brzeski (jnr.)
Sue Brzeski
Johnny Galliver
Tony Galliver
Bosco Hazard
Chucky McBrien
Hugh McBrien (Records Officer)
Laura McBrien (Secretary/Treasurer)
Liam McBrien (jnr.)
Lizzy McBrien
Jim McDowall
Gary Nelson
Mairi Nelson
Bryan Simpson
Iain Singer
Aileen Thomson (Chairman)
Jim Urquhart (Field Captain)