It’s nearly 10pm on a Saturday night in Finnieston and The Park Bar has started to bounce. Beneath the strand lights and Saltires, Glasgow’s Highlanders and Islanders are tapping their feet and clapping their hands, looking affectionately on as a throng of twenty-somethings launch full pelt into the Gay Gordons. They’ve pulled a beaming man of about 70 along for the ride.
I was told this is a quiet night but aside from a dancing area cleared out in front of the three-piece ceilidh band, we’re shoulder to shoulder. Spirits are high and spirits are flowing. The atmosphere is lighthearted, jubilant.
“There’s never any trouble,” Mrs MacInnes whispers loudly into my ear over the music. “Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink, dear?”
I smile and shake my head no. “I’m okay, thank you!” She nods and makes her way back to her table next to the stage where Mr MacInnes is sitting with another couple. The pair have been coming to The Park Bar for more than five decades. It’s where Mr MacInnes, of North Uist, had his stag night in 1969.
“We just like it, everyone is so friendly, and the staff can’t do enough for you,” says Mrs MacInnes, of Skye. But you really need to come early to get a seat, she adds.
The Park Bar on Argyle Street is an institution and one of the few remaining pubs to have a steady programme of traditional Scottish and Ceilidh music, as I come to discover. The site has been a pub since 1873, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that former manager Terry Ferguson introduced Gaelic music to the place. There were around 16,000 Gaelic speakers in Partick alone at the time and it became a refuge for the Highland and Island community.
When Terry passed the torch on to Nina Steele more than three decades ago, traditions were upheld, the essence of The Park unchanged. But when she decided to step down in 2023 (three months after Dundas Heritable sold the establishment to the English-based Trust Inns) and the leasehold hit the market, a sense of uneasiness swept through the punters. Would the ceilidh carry on?
“Although we’ve taken this on, we don’t want to change anything,” Gary, 45, says. “We want the spirit of the place, the soul of the place, to carry on for many years to come. That’s the thing that excited us about it.”
“To continue the celebration of Scottish culture and keep it going in a non-pretentious way,” adds Deirdre, 35.
The couple used to run the Sligachan Hotel and Seumas’ Whisky Bar in Skye, but they sold up in November 2023 to move back to Glasgow, the city where they first met. They were dithering about getting back into hospitality when The Park Bar came up. Hesitations about taking it on melted away each time they came to see it, falling more and more in love on every occasion.
“It’s like a Scottish wedding every Friday and Saturday night, there is such a buzz about it,” Deirdre says. “That feeling you get when you leave, it’s just so energising. And that’s what it feels like when you open the doors as well. You just meet so many interesting people, you have so many good conversations every day, it’s fun. The staff are amazing as well.”
“It’s such a cultural anchor for Islanders, Highlanders and the Gaelic community, but also for Glaswegians who want to come and experience a traditional Scottish pub every weekend,” Gary adds. “Having traditional Scottish music and Ceilidh music is actually quite rare. There are lots of Irish pubs in Scotland, but very few truly authentic Scottish pubs that represent Scottish hospitality and Highland hospitality in that way.”
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The band tonight is Monach Isles. Accordion player Michael Macmillan, drummer Francis Wallis and piper Christopher Mackenzie have come down from Invershin, a scattered clachan about an hour north of Inverness. Michael, who also fronts Scottish folk band Torridon, echoes what Gary says about the dwindling of venues.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of the last real places where you can get Ceilidh music,” Michael says. "Inverness has a good music scene, for example. But you don’t get the same Highland and Island connection found in The Park Bar. It doesn’t exist in many places.”
He’s been playing The Park since he was 18 years old. Now 35, Michael describes the pub as “ground zero” every time he comes to Glasgow. “It’s a huge part of everyone’s lives, so it’s good to see there are new owners that are going to keep the torch alive. Anyone can buy a bar, but I think with The Park Bar, there’s a huge responsibility that comes along with it. You’ve got generations of Gaelic singers and musicians that rely on you to keep the tradition going - because if not, it will die out. There’s a good Gaelic community in Glasgow, so it’s good that we’ve still got somewhere to come and congregate.”
She moved to the city at 17 and has recently qualified for mental health nursing. She’s joined by her pal Rosie, 22. The pair met through shinty. “It’s like chuchter hockey,” Thea explains.
I can’t quite make out where Rosie, 22, says she’s from over the music. “Do you know where Dunoon is? It’s like 40 minutes west of that, like, middle of nowhere,” she says.
A garbled conversation about shinty follows. I’m invited along to the next day’s game in a shining example of the clientele’s enduring hospitality.
“This is the only place my grandpa says I can go,” Thea added. Then she whispers that the new owners are good, but the prices have gone up. “I don’t know if that’s connected, but it happened,” she shrugs.
His friend Somhairle’s parents also used to come to The Park Bar. The 21-year-old’s dad was a piper. “It’s like a second home, like you just come in here and get f*cking steaming,” he says. “Most of the bar staff recognise me it’s pretty bad. Been kicked out here a few too many times. And they still let me back in – who knows why. Saying that, I think they kicked my dad out of here a few times.”
Kishorn Commandos plays and a tavern chorus erupts. Delight swells throughout the crowd. It’s clear that so far, Gary and Deirdre have kept the magic of The Park Bar alive.
“This place is all about the music, it’s all about the craic, it’s all about coming here to dance and have a good time and sharing that celebratory atmosphere that you get with that music,” Gary says.
“We’re very appreciative of the legacy that’s come before us, and it’s an honour to take it on,” he adds. “We just hope that we can continue that for generations to come, and then hopefully pass it on to someone else, because I think this is such an institution, and such a cultural anchor, that it should always be here.”
Marissa MacWhirter is the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. Each morning, Marissa curates the top local news stories from around the city, delivering them to your inbox at 7am daily so you can stay up to date on the best reporting without ads, clickbait or annoying digital clutter. Oh, and it’s free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1
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