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Lucky old us.

Us? Well, us that live in the Glasgow area. Just 45 minutes North and it is the gateway to the Highlands, 45 minutes West, the Clyde coast, 45 minutes East, the capital, Edinburgh, and 45 minutes South, The Clyde Valley.

My Clyde Valley is a little larger than that found on the map, it stretches north to Bothwell and south to East Kilbride as well as from the M8 to New Lanark.

Four castles, Bothwell, Strathaven, Cadzow and Craignethan. Country parks, Calderglen, Strathclyde and Chatelherault. Historical places like the Dalserf Church built in 1655 The church was a centre of Covenanter activity, Chatelherault House, designed by William Adam, and completed in 1734.

DALSERF CHURCH.

The Clyde Valley, once the fruit centre of Scotland and now home to many garden centres where you can take a break from your tour to enjoy the home baking, and at one of them you will find a "Red Arrows" jet plane and a very large passenger aircraft, the Convair 440 Metropolitan.

There is a theme park in Strathclyde Country Park very near to the Hamilton Mausoleum, construction begun in 1842, reputedly this building has the longest lasting echo of any man-made structure in the world, and the Antiques centre at Garrion bridge, the "Old Bridge was built 1871.

I have only scratched the surface of my Clyde Valley and have not even arrived at the World Heritage Site of New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde.

The Clyde Valley, not a day out, several days out.

Tags: castles, clyde, country, parks., places, valley

Comment by Erik Zoha on July 28, 2011 at 10:35: Interesting blog posting

Comment by trevor downer on July 28, 2011 at 11:58: Thankyou Eric, I am English and sometimes wonder if we tend to ignore what we have on our own doorstep, we accept it but have eyes for other parts. It's true of me as I now have a greater interest in my home area of Sussex.

Comment by Kathleen Bates on September 3, 2011 at 16:45: I was raised in Ayrshire and by the time I was a teenager was desperate to leave, it has taken me many years to realise what jems the small towns of Ayrshire are, especially now that I have started rediscovering them again. Why/how? Hubby got a sat nav, which is taking us to places we had never heard of, we key into this magic box where we want to go, either by the quickest or fastest rout to get there. This summer we have been to places I heard mention by members of my family or just other people but I've finally seen them. I thought I was getting too old to find so many new places, was I pathetic or what, there are plenty more to discover next year. So, roll on the camping season next year and I will see a lot more.

Comment by trevor downer on September 4, 2011 at 23:24: Hello Kathleen, I was raised in Sussex and was never desperate to leave, but I did, and eventually found my way to Scotland. There is so much of interest to see and do now that I am retired and very lucky to have so much almost on my doorstep. Yes, the sat-nav, and I don't have one, would be an ideal way of getting around as so many of the places of interest give you the post code on their adverts. You don't have to wait for next year there are things to do all of the time especially if you take your camera good for autumn colour and snowy scenes.

Lucky old us.

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