by On our daily one hour stroll last week we had just passed the community urban garden plots and heard an unusual amount of cooing coming from inside a little wooden compound. A man shouted from his car, “Canne help ye?” Keeping our NHS recommended social-distancing distance, we inquired about all the cooing coming from the intimidating fenced-in sheds. His eyes immediately lit up, as he proceeded to lock up his car and walk our way with a slight grin, “aye, I’ll show ye!” Come to find out about 500 pigeons were happily cohabitating inside the homemade shed kingdom, where underrated but majestic birds strutted about in, on, and above their dovecots. The kings and queens of a lesser-known but world champion, Glasgow area Pigeon Racing community.
Just one side of the dovecot courtyard 
Birds circling the compound until safe to land 
Where the Queen of Clydebank national champion resides.
We listened in a jovial state of awe, as the man graciously began to share with us all about the inner workings of the pigeon racing scene and his own proud story of racing, which spans his family over 100 years in Glasgow & Clydebank. He shared the secrets of the breeding lines and history, how the birds are tempted to the finish line, amazing stories of speed and accuracy, and the unbelievable amounts of money involved not only in upkeep, but the values of some of the birds who resided in this neat but ramshackle dovecot castle were eye-popping. But nothing to the extremes of the one pigeon sold in 2019 for 1.4 million in China…. shocking but true!
Ancient Egyptian mosaic 
Ancient Roman mosaic 
WWI Pigeon Transport
Pigeons have been a part of history for at least 5000 years. They have been found in the ancient hieroglyphics & statuettes of Egypt. In Greek myths, they were pets of the Gods. The Romans revered them enough to put them on coins. And they have saved many soldier’s lives, flying messages to battlefields from Medieval times up through WWII.
It wasn’t until the 19th century in Belgium, when racing took hold and spread across all civilized continents. Racing in it’s crudest form, with the accuracy of times and bird locations a bit more difficult compared to today’s electronic time and tracking capability, it’s organization resembling techniques used in master marathon timekeeping and tracking.
According to the UK & Ireland Pigeon Racing Association, over 60,000 registered pigeon enthusiasts (known as fanciers) are in the UK, an impressive 42,000 of these keep and race pigeons. That amazing number is just for the United Kingdom, alone. Even Queen Elizabeth is a ‘fancier’, as was her father the King, before her. A Royal Family tradition even today, keeping 150+ racing pigeons in the royal lofts at Sandringham and still closely connected with the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.
Queen & Princess Margaret as Girl Guides & early pigeon fanciers. 
The Royal dovecots at Sandringham pre WWII
more history …..
For more information on pigeon racing and history click the blue links throughout the article and if you want to know everything there seems to be known about the underrated Kings & Queens of the bird kingdom go check out the Pigeon Control Resource Center, an amazing amount of trivial but interesting history there.
many thanks …..
And so many thanks to this kind man in Clydebank, a distillery work by day and a proud pigeon fancier the other 16 hours of the day! In times of social distancing and keeping to one’s self, it was nice to know passing strangers are still willing to graciously share their stories and their passions with others.
