Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Trip To New Lanark

Rob, Brock and I went to New Lanark yesterday. It is a restored 18th Century cotton mill village, with a visitors' centre, shop, cafe, roof garden and more.

On arrival you park in the car park above the village and have a steep walk down to it, with great views over the buildings and river. (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)


First, we enjoyed the walk alongside the River Clyde to the waterfalls, with Brock.




There are three waterfalls upstream from New Lanark lying on the Clyde Walkway: Dundaff Linn (3 metres) is the close to the village. Corra Linn (28 metres) is about 20-25 minutes walk, and Bonnington Linn (11 metres) about 30-45 minutes walk. The one shown in the photo above, is Corra Linn. The ruined Bonnington Pavillion (below) is situated high above the falls. It was a summerhouse for the aristocracy to view the falls in a mirror, or through the frame of the window.


The river levels were quite low, so it was not as spectacular as during our last visit. There is the Bonnington hydro electric power station nearby, which takes some of the water flow to produce electricity. It was the first hydro electric power station built in Scotland, in 1927.

We had lunch in the cafe in the village, set in a renovated mill. It is a huge space, still showing interesting features from its original use. The food is tasty, but the service was very slow. (I had to stand at the counter for 10 minutes, to order the food, as there was no one serving).  I had a melon 'boat', followed by baked potato with cheese and beans. Rob had a similar potato, and a muffin. His muffin was very good, as was my melon. The potatoes came with a pat of butter, crisps and salad. The salad was nice and fresh, with mixed leaves, grated carrot, chopped red pepper, onion, cucumber, and sliced tomatoes. The potato had been properly baked with a thick skin and they were a generous size. The baked beans were good and hot, too. We both had cappuccinos. The bill came to just over £16. Other options included salads, paninis, pies and soup.


The roof top garden is just visible behind the trees.


The gift shops sells various souvenirs, food items and organic wool spun in the village, which I would have been very tempted by if I was a knitter. If you are interested in the history of the village, there is a museum/visitors' centre to see.

Also in the village is a small shop selling sweets from jars and other gift items. We treated ourselves to some chocolate covered caramels for the journey home - delicious!

An interesting day out, but a lot of walking involved!

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