David Livingstone Centre, Clyde Walkway and Redlees Park Circuit
Date: 29 April 2023
Leader: David
Grade: C+
Number on walk: 6
Length 10 km. Ascent 135 m.
Hills climbed: None.
From the David Livingstone Centre, cross the Clyde and follow a wooded section of the Clyde Walkway north past Bothwell Castle to the next footbridge. Cross the footbridge and return to the David Livingstone Centre through Redlees Urban Park passing the quarry pond and WW2 Anti-Aircraft Battery.
Click here for GPX track of the walk
The first crossing of the River Clyde at the start of the walk
This 160m long bridge linking Blantyre and Bothwell was opened in 1999 and replaced an earlier suspension bridge built in 1952 but considered dangerous in 1999 and demolished.
A view upstream as we crossed the River Clyde
The Low Blantyre hydro-electric power station, weir and associated fish ladder can be seen on the right of the photograph. The power station was built in 1993 making use of an existing weir to power a single turbine to producing 575kW of electricity.
Our group on the banks of the River Clyde
Still visible, despite the graffiti, is a stone mason’s mark showing the level to which the river rose on 12th March 1782 (The level is just below the bottom right corner of the red paint).
Our first view of Bothwell Castle
Construction of the castle began in the latter half of the 1200s. Invasion and repeated siege meant that the original design of the castle was never completed and the surviving ruins are largely the work of the Earls of Douglas in the years around 1400
The morning break was taken sitting on the ruins of the barbican (fortified gateway) at Bothwell Castle
The barbican was part of a grander scheme for the castle which was started but, historians believe, never finished.
An undoubted bonus for our walk was this sighting of an otter
Our second crossing of the River Clyde – “The Green Bridge”
Lunch in Redlees Urban Park
The park is part of the Bothwell, Blantyre and Uddingston Local Nature Reserve and was developed by South Lanarkshire Council from 2010 to 2012. This pond is the site of a former sandstone quarry and clay pit which closed in the 1980s and was then allowed to flood.