Three grans on Clyde Walkway Stage 1

Two of us were coming from north-west and one from south-east of Glasgow Exhibition Centre. One of us thought we were meeting at the railway station, one of us thought we were meeting at the Exhibition Centre, and one hadn't a clue. We all got together eventually, not helped by text messages not arriving promptly, nor by one of us having forgotten to check she had LanarkshireGran's number on her new phone.

Exhibition Centre coffees and loos being sufficiently tested, we set off. Here is LanarkshireGran (LG) and LittleSheBear (LSB) in the foreground with the Finnieston Crane and the arc of Squinty Bridge (officially "Clyde Arc" Bridge but everyone calls it Squinty; this is Glasgow after all! 🙂) beyond. We set off eastwards. Below is the view looking back towards the BBC Scotland building and another arc: Glasgow Science Centre.

LSB

Looking back again to Squinty Bridge. The dome-roofed building to the left of Squinty is the southern Rotunda. There is another on the northern side of the river and a tunnel runs between them.

This link takes you to a page that has a good photo taken from above, of both Rotundas and Squinty, plus a bit of history.

Squiggley Bridge, Glasgow

Within minutes we had come to a dead end. Clearly my talent at homing in on dead ends has not diminished. Diggory would have been proud of me (Diggory was my old car many moons ago; he often led me on round about scenic routes and into dead ends). We could have walked back and around the building but we decided to climb over the fence, up a ladder and over another fence. LSB, being the youngest, led the way and hoiked LG and me over.

The next bridge along (yes, I love bridges!) is officially called the Tradeston Bridge. Unofficially – this being Glasgow, and there being a Squinty Bridge already when it was built – Squiggley Bridge.

Squiggley Bridge

And so we trundled along, enjoying the bright sunshine and light reflected off the river. The photo to the right was taken from the shade of the King George V Bridge and looking towards the second Caledonian Rail Bridge, the pillars of the first, four-track, Caledonian Rail Bridge and, furthest away, Glasgow Bridge which is also known as Jamaica Street Bridge.

Just beyond the Jamaica Street Bridge, on Custom House Quay, is the sculpture, La Pasionaria, by Arthur Dooley (1929-1994). The inscriptions below it say:

"Better to die on your feet than live for ever on your knees", Dolores Ibárruri (1895-1989).

"The City of Glasgow and the British Labour Movement pay tribute to the courage of those men and women who went to Spain to fight Fascism 1936-1939. 2,100 went from Britain, 534 were killed, 65 of whom came from Glasgow."

There were lots (lots!) of rowers on the river, and quite a few rowing coaches cycling along the walkway (which is also a cycle track) yelling instructions to the boats. The boats went by so fast I had difficulty getting a good shot of them.

Along the way someone had stuck feathers into the cracks where a tree branch had been cut off.

feather decorations

We crossed Shawfield Footbridge to eat our picnic lunches on the other side. Further inland from the footbridge is the Shawfield Greyhound Stadium. There is a good stretch of cleared land between the stadium and the river, which is presumably going to be developed at some stage.

When we had crossed back to the north side of the river, though after Shawfield Footbridge it was more like the east side because there's a bunch of big meanders at this part, I managed to get a shot of some of the rowers from a distance.

Strathclyde Public School, built in 1903, is near Shawfield Footbridge. The school closed as a school in 1974. Apparently it was reopened as a business centre in 1999.

The last old bridge in this post is the Dalmarnock Rail Bridge, seen here through the pillars and ironwork of an older rail bridge. The last new bridge is this one below that's so new it's not on the maps or Google yet.

A little before we crossed the river at Cambuslang we were reminded of the planet's plastic bag plague by this "plastic bag tree" on the riverbank. When the sluices at New Lanark are opened the river water level rises quite a lot. The low branches of this tree have snagged floating plastic bags.

LSB had researched the availability of refreshments at Cambuslang so we repaired to Morrison's Supermarket café for hot drinks and snackeroos.

Altogether a lovely day. The sun shone on us all the way and the low temperatures meant we didn't get too hot tramping along. We were also, of course, most congenial company for each other.

Watch this pace for accounts of our further trampings along the Clyde Walkway.