Ten places offering fantastic walks in Lanarkshire

Central Scotland has many fantastic areas in which to walk and enjoy the great outdoors.

There are so many places worth visiting where you can stretch your legs in Lanarkshire, which offers some excellent scenery as well as physical challenges.

Here’s 10 that we recommend.

Lanark Loch

Lanark Loch is an ideal fun day out for all the family, there are lots of activities to keep everyone entertained. Through the summer months there are bumper boats and other small rides on offer, as well as a putting green and a small pitch and putt course. There is a small kiosk, with picnic area and play park, which serves refreshments. If you are feeling energetic you can take a walk round the loch or for something a little more relaxing, try fishing. Coarse is fishing by permit only and the loch is stocked with a variety of species including carp and pike. Day tickets and annual permits are available. At the edge of the park is a good bar, where you can relax after a day’s exersions.

Strathclyde Park

Strathclyde Park

Strathclyde Country Park, near Motherwell, is set within beautiful surroundings, and is one of the most popular family attractions in the central belt of Scotland, with thousands of visitors coming each year. Built on the former mining village of Bothwellhaugh, its centrepiece is a loch (which is about four miles to walk around) which was used in the 1986 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, for watersports. The park offers outdoor adventure playgrounds, bicycle hire, fitness gym, watersports centre with cafe, conference facilities and watersports activities including rowing, sailing, kayaking, powerboat handling and windsurfing, as well as popular family funboats. The Waterfront Cafe at the park is well worth a visit.

Drumpellier Park

This fantastic park in Airdrie has lots of facilities and trails for a great family day out including a visitor centre, cafe, wildlife displays and adventure playground as well as offering seasonal fun boat hire. The whole park covers an area of 500 acres and comprises of two natural lochs, moorland, woodlands and grasslands. The Monklands Canal lies towards the southern perimeter of the park offering further walking and cycling potential. The lochs and canal attract a large number of water birds, both resident and migrants. The woodlands and grasslands are also rich in bird life, large and small mammals and a great variety of native wildflowers. The networks of paths makes for easy access to all areas of the park and many of these are accessible to wheelchairs and prams.

Calderglen

Calderglen Country Park is located in East Kilbride, and is a a four-star tourist attraction which has a mini zoo and tropical conservatory, ornamental gardens, nature trails and walks, courtyard cafe, toddlers’ play area, adventure play area and an 18 hole golf course. The mini zoo is well worth a visit, to see animals as diverse as wallabies, porcupines and love birds. The conservatory is always pleasantly warm, and a real favourite with youngsters. The park extends along a scenic wooded glen forged out by the Rotten Calder River, a tributary of the River Clyde. The glen extends over 5km and has many attractive waterfalls and important geological features.

Main Castle overlooks the James Hamilton Heritage Park in East Kilbride

James Hamilton Heritage Park

East Kilbride’s James Hamilton Heritage Park is a four star Visit Scotland accredited activity centre. The park features a 16 acre loch which provides beautiful and tranquil surroundings for an exciting range of water sports, from canoeing to windsurfing. The distance around the loch perimeter path is 1.2 kilometres (3/4 of a mile). The Heritage Park is a Recognised Teaching Centre (RTA) for the Scottish Canoe Association (SCA) and Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and only instructors qualified by the Recognised Governing Body (RGB) are utilised.The two adventure playgrounds are also star attractions and there is also a popular fleet of fun boats. They can also offer ornithologists some excellent bird watching opportunities from the bird sanctuary. It’s all set under the watchful gaze of the beautiful Mains Castle.

Tinto

If you are feeling energetic, then Tinto is a good challenge. With a well worn footpath leading to the summit, it should take two to three hours to reach the summit. There’s lots to see en route, including an Iron Age fort, as observant walkers will spot the double ditches and ramparts of this prehistoric defensive site. The summit cairn dates from the Bronze Age it is largest cairn in Scotland. It is tradition to carry a rock from the bottom and place it on the top to keep Tinto growing. At 707 metres it is the highest point in central Scotland and the perfect introduction to hill walking, and one the clearest days the view takes in the Lake District, the mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, Ailsa Craig and Arran in the Firth of Clyde, the Arrochar Alps and as far north as Lochnagar in the Cairngorms. Afterwards, take a break in the Tinto tearoom open Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (all year round).

Dalzell Estate

This fantastic park near Motherwell has five coloured way-marked routes that you can follow, each of varying length and taking in different aspects of the site. Highlights include historic Dalzell House, the Japanese Gardens, arboretum, mausoleum, Lord Gavin’s Temple, and St Patrick’s Chapel. The Covenanters Oak, near the main house, is probably the oldest living thing in North Lanarkshire. Old age and bad weather have led to some damage in recent years, but work has been undertaken to preserve this mighty tree. Dalzell Estate also adjoins the RSPB’s Baron’s Haugh nature reserve, and the woodlands, grasslands and water of the estate and the reserve are home to an incredible variety of wildlife.

Chatelherault in Hamilton offers a historic building and stunning walks

Chatelherault

Chatelherault Country Park, a five star visitor attraction under the Visit Scotland grading scheme, is located in Hamilton. The park has 500 acres of countryside and woodland and over 10 miles of routed pathways. It features an adventure play ground, picnic facilities and is home to a listed 18th century hunting lodge. This is well worth a visit, especially to discover the effect that mining in the area had on this beautiful building, once owned by the Dukes of Hamilton. The visitor centre, cafe and gift shop are open to visitors daily and the park offers some of the most breathtaking views across the central belt, Campsie Hills and Ben Lomond.

Palacerigg

Set in the hills to the south-east of Cumbernauld, Palacerigg Country Park has more than 40 hectares of what was once a bleak upland farm, and have been planted with hundreds of thousands of native trees and shrubs. This new, sheltered environment provides a sanctuary for wildlife including thriving populations of roe deer, badger, fox and hare as well as sparrowhawk, kestrel, long-eared and short-eared owl.Palacerigg’s animal collection is unique in Central Scotland and provides an opportunity to see many rare breeds in addition to other friendly farm animals. Rare breeds include North Ronaldsay and Boreray sheep, Bagot goats, Tamworth pigs and Scots grey and Scots dumpy poultry. Explore the nature trails and places of historic interest, including evidence of fireclay mining at Glencryan and peat cutting at Gobhar, while 300 hectares of grassland, moorland, woodland and ponds ensure a haven for wildlife, providing breeding sites and places of refuge.

The Falls of Clyde

A short walk along the River Clyde from the World Heritage Site of New Lanark, this is a walk with incredible views, leading to the Cora Linn, a stunning waterfall with a fall of 84 feet. Walkers will pass a number of waterfalls as it passes up a beautiful wooded gorge, which also features a peregrine falcon watching area before a more placid return route takes you through fields and woodland. The walk can be extended by following a waymarked additional route on the far side of the river. The area has long been a popular destination for visitors. The Wordsworths, Coleridge and Sir Walter Scott all visited the Falls. In short, a must visit, especially if tied in with a visit to New Lanark.