Scotland: Clyde Falls, New Lanark

On one of Coral’s workdays, Aileen (see Scotland: Edinburgh), an avid rambler, offered to guide me on an adventurous walk. Her suggestion was a seven-mile route on the Clyde  River to see the Clyde Falls near New Lanark. About 45 minutes from where we are staying, the footpath meanders through a spectacular Scottish canyon cut in the limestone by the river.

Though it rained on the drive to the trailhead, and again on the way back, we stayed dry throughout the 5-hour hike, and enjoyed several spectacular water falls and a few surprises along the way.

While we walked, Aileen introduced me to one of her passions–geocaching. Along the way we found three caches. One was a first-time find (we were the first ones to find this particular stash, a coup in the geocaching world), and another involved a carved badger in a tree trunk as a clue.

Near the end of the walk we stumbled onto a series of intricately carved tree stumps and logs. We checked them all out as Aileen recounted stories of a fairy community presided over by the fairy queen sitting on her toadstool.