Discover Scottish heritage on a riverside hike — Clyde Walkway

The Clyde Walkway takes you on a sublime riverside journey from the vibrant Victorian heart of Glasgow to the thundering Falls of Clyde, via a landscape that is alive with Scottish culture and breathtaking-beauty.

Starting in the west of Glasgow, the trail follows the River Clyde south east for its entire 40-mile (65-km) duration, exploring spellbinding-scenery and important sites that reveal the cultural, natural, and industrial heritage of the Clyde Valley.

The attractions come thick-and-fast on this route. Glasgow, of course, has plenty to see. Other highlights include the 13th-century ruins of Bothwell Castle, the stunning Strathclyde Loch and country park, the UNESCO World Heritage village of New Lanark, and the Falls of Clyde, which crash spectacularly through a wooded wildlife reserve.

The Clyde Walkway is leisurely throughout. The trail is generally flat (final stage aside), well-maintained, and is waymarked. Whilst there are significant sections on hard surfaces, there is a good proportion of walking on a more natural terrain, too.

You can walk the trail in any direction and both have their merits. If you choose north west to south east, as shown in this Collection, the scenery becomes more rural with every step and you make an epic finish on the Falls of Clyde. That said, the other direction is essentially a gradual downhill followed by level walking and finishes in a city, which makes finding accommodation super-easy.

In this Collection, I split the route into three stages; the first two are 15 miles (24 km) and the final one is nearly 11 miles (18 km). Accommodation and public transport links are great along this trail, so you can conveniently tailor the itinerary.

In Scotland, you can also wild camp, so long as it is practised responsibly under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code: outdooraccess-scotland.scot/practical-guide-all/camping.

Getting to the start of the route is easy as Glasgow has fantastic public transport links. At the end, you simply need to catch a train from Lanark to Glasgow.

For more information about the Clyde Walkway, visit: southlanarkshire.gov.uk/downloads/download/258/clyde_walkway.
For train timetables and tickets, visit: thetrainline.com.