Walking the Clyde

Ian R Mitchell describes a three-day trip from New Lanark to Glasgow Green.

The Clyde is not Scotland's longest river, but many claim that its scenery is the most varied, rising as it does in the wild moors of Lanarkshire and flowing through some of Scotland's most fertile lands, to its mountain-girt outlet at the Firth of Clyde. And with certainty, no other river can match the historical built environment of the Clyde, which has along its banks some of the finest castles in Scotland as well as an unrivalled heritage of industrial glory.

There are many ways to explore the Clyde from sailing its wide lower section, to hard hiking in its upland reaches, but the best way to appreciate the central part of this great river is to take the relatively gentle 45 miles of the Clyde Walkway between the city of Glasgow and the UNESCO-designated village of New Lanark. Lanark is reached by train from Glasgow, and New Lanark itself is gained by a short walk downhill from the station.

UNESCO designations are usually reserved for outstanding landscape or for ancient and medieval remains; the fact that the former industrial town of New Lanark has one of Scotland's handful of such listings shows its importance. It is not just that this factory and its associated buildings, the birthplace of the Scottish cotton industry when constructed in 1785, are beautiful. This is no Dark Satanic Mill, but a cluster of buildings inspired by the Palladian aristocratic mansions built by the Scottish Adam architectural dynasty, and set like a jewel in the delightful riverside scenery...

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• By : Ian R Mitchell
• In : Walking Scotland
• Issue : 41
• Page : 46
• Words : 1,235