Clyde Walkway 25 February

Alan, Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Gus, Jimmy, Johnny, Kenny, Malcolm, Paul, Peter, Rex, Robert

Looking back from the Shawfield side

The road to nowhere?

Having assembled at the Concert Hall café for coffee, it was just after half-past ten that we headed down the soon-to-be-removed steps and on to Buchanan Street. Crossing over into St Enoch Square  it was no time at all before we were at the Clyde Walkway and turned left heading for Glasgow Green and beyond. The forecast was for rain arriving in the early afternoon, so it was not unexpected that ‘we did not hang about’. The remains of the Clutha were passed and Glasgow Green came and went with no diversion to the People’s Palace or to see the Hockey Centre. As we went further up the Clyde, we noted the new Police Headquarters and the naturalists amongst us were pleased to see cormorants perched on a tree on the opposite bank, no doubt keeping well away from the copious amounts of litter that decorated the area.

Police HQ in the backgrouind.

Usually we do a bit of bridge-crossing on this walk but today the only one that was crossed, and re-crossed, was the new Clyde Gateway Bridge which goes from Carstairs Street across to Shawfield, where a vast amount of work has been done to landscape the area, no doubt with a view to regeneration. A couple of workers were doing some electrical work on the bridge and one particularly chatty bloke referred to the bridge as the Smart Bridge. Robert got engaged in conversation with him and was able to administer some matrimonial advice – can you imagine?

Yet another squinty bridge!

From here it was on past the Dalmarnock Sewage works which thankfully we couldn’t see and on to the Commonwealth Games Village which has just accepted the first of its new tenants. This is a huge development and hopefully the new villagers will take pride in their environment. Again, for the naturalists, we could see a couple of deer roaming about on the opposite side of the river, maybe explaining the venison on the menu at the West. Having just passed this ’Legacy’, we turned off the walkway and headed up to London Road for the return leg down past Celtic Park and Bridgeton Cross and to our lunch date at the aforementioned West Brewery.

Rutherglen passport control

Whilst at lunch, the rains arrived, but by the time thoughts of heading home arose, the rain had lightened. Due to later commitments, we left in dribs and drabs, with Peter first to go, followed by Davie Mc, Jimmy, Paul and Malcolm. Eventually the stalwarts made their way back into town for their various modes of transport. Six finished the day off in Wetherspoon’s in Kilmarnock, now there’s a surprise!