Walk 90 – The Falls of Clyde, New Lanark – 3.7 miles

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Best experienced after a period of sustained rainfall, this section of the River Clyde is pretty spectacular. Starting in the historical village of New Lanark, the track forms the last section of the Clyde Walkway and is basically a woodland walk with viewpoints to the waterfalls along the river. The Falls of Clyde are formed of Bonnington Linn, Corra Linn, Dundaff Linn, and Stonebyres Linn. This walk has some steep hilly sections and lots of steps. There is a kids play park in the village which is quite unique so well worth a visit. 3.7 miles there & back. 

For a longer route try this circular option.

Print  Dog-friendly walk (beware cliffs)

  Car parking available at New Lanark World Heritage Site  (ML11 9DB). Closest train station is in Lanark, 2.7km away (there is a bus service from Lanark to New Lanark).

Falls of Clyde

WALK REPORT: 1st October 2016

The last time we did the walk along the Clyde at New Lanark our eldest son was just months old. Today we returned with a 5 and a 3 year old to experience it once again! There had been a lot of rain the week prior so I was really excited to see the falls. My excitement increased when we arrived and saw the first glimpse of the raging River Clyde from a vantage point above the village.  We were in for a treat!  I couldn’t wait to get further along and show the kids the huge waterfalls!

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Path from the car park down into the village
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New Lanark UNESCO World Heritage Site – a former mill-workers village in the 1800s, it has been restored as a living community and features a Visitor Centre, Cafe, the Annie McLeod Experience, Robert Owen’s School and more. A great family day out. Note the pale blue sign on the fence in front of the house closest to camera…..
This is a close up of that sign 🙂 From here on known as the “badger signs”. They are dotted along the trail to help keep you on the right path.
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First view of the lower falls. These are always spectacular, even when the river isn’t in spate. I can recommend going in to the building on the left of the photo, right to the far corner beneath the tower. There are open windows with a view right out over the top of the waterfall. The noise can be quite overwhelming!
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Archway to the woods!

Bonnington Power Station – surprisingly pretty as power stations go and certainly sparked an interest with the kids…. cue a million questions!

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I loved this badger painting on the wall next to the power station – we have started to measure the kids against it by taking a new photo of them every time we visit.

The walk up to Corra Linn is fun with lots of stairs to negotiate and plenty of view points from which to see the waterfalls.  We loved the section of boardwalk right down by the river.

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Corra Linn

If I am honest  though, I didn’t particularly enjoy the last section from Corra Linn to the Weir. I kept thinking that the further we walked the more spectacular the waterfalls were going to be however instead the viewpoints became a bit of a let down with not much to see and the kids were getting a little bored with the woodland walk. If I return in future I will likely stop at Corra Linn as in my opinion you have seen the best of what there is by that point. Nonetheless a really nice woodland walk and definitely a place of beauty, especially at this time of year with the Autumn colours starting to appear.

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Part of the path from Corra Linn to Bonnington Linn Weir
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Autumn is on it’s way!
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Late afternoon sun shining through the trees
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Bonnington Linn Weir
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Looking East along the River Clyde as seen from Bonnington Linn Weir

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