Rich cooks a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast and we dry our washing in the tumble drier before leaving the fantastic flat in Lanark. We buy lunch in Tesco then it’s down the High Street to head towards the Clyde.
We follow the A72 then there should be a path of on the left on the OS app. It’s not identifiable on the 1:50,000 Landranger map and we are unable to locate it so continue onto the A73 and cross the Clyde, taking a photograph of the bridge we should have been on. The Clyde Walkway then joins us to go along the A73. It’s not clear whether this is because the Clyde flows through a deep gorge here or the landowners did not grant permission. Most likely, it is a mixture of both. After about half a mile, we turn down a track leading to the river. Here the river looks replete and almost stagnant. We soon discover why as cross back over on the dam/weir bridge, part of another small hydroelectric plant. There are some more falls and rapids downstream. We see some grey wagtails and what turns out to be a grey heron. It is becoming more difficult to identify birds as they have regional variations in appearance as well as local accents! We follow the river, going up, down and occasionally inland, as these river ways tend to do. I think I see a jay, but can’t be sure.
By mid-morning, we see a sign for the Clyde Walkway Café: it’s too good an opportunity to miss. The café is part of the Clyde Valley Family park, consisting of farm animals, llamas, a miniature railway, go-karts, shops, crazy golf and a play area. Our children would have loved it when they were little and there’s an NHS discount too. After a coffee and some rocky road, we move on, passing a sign quoting the great John Muir: ‘Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt’.
The Walkway continues in a similar vein, by the river, in the woods and across fields. It seems to have evolved since it was last surveyed, probably because of erosion and changes in land permissions. We pass two runners who then come back past us. I am full of admiration for them running over this undulating terrain that is so uneven underfoot. We meet them again further on doing their warm down and stop to chat. Like most people we talk to now, they are very surprised that we’ve walked here from Norfolk. Coincidentally, they have a friend who lives in Castle Acre and have visited The Ostrich, our very first overnight stop.
We reach and cross the A71, heading closer to Motherwell. Rich expresses an anxiety that the riverside might deteriorate, but it doesn’t. Across a field, we spot another ruined pile overgrown with trees. This is Cambusnethan House, constructed by James Gillespie Graham in 1820 and is considered to be the finest surviving example of a quasi-ecclesiastical neo-gothic building in Scotland. Unsurprisingly, it is another building on the Scottish ‘at risk’ register. Various renovations have been proposed in the past but one group or another objected and nature is fast claiming the building for its own.
The river is braided after this and we walk along a raised bank beside its most northerly branch. I think I see a kingfisher but again can’t be sure and there are some birds that might be sand martins, there are certainly appropriate burrows in the opposite bank, but positive identification evades us. We’ve definitely seen mallards, mute swans and buzzards though. We then arrive at the Baron’s Haugh RSPB reserve and see moorhens, coots, herring gulls and lesser black backed gulls to add to today’s list.
Finally, we pass under a railway bridge and follow a path to the A723 and up the hill into Motherwell itself. It’s much nicer than we expected and The Moorings Best Western hotel is a welcome, comfortable stopover.
Total distance so far: 542 miles
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