By
UofG Blogger
Posted 2 weeks ago
Tue 04 Feb, 2025 12:02 AM
The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh is one of the most famous, but on this new Scotland Guide I’ll introduce you to a lesser known site that you can easily reach from Glasgow for a nice day out: New Lanark.
New Lanark is a restored 18th century cotton mill village on the banks of the River Clyde. At the time was one of the largest industrial groups in the world with over 2,000 people living or working in the village.
It was managed by the social reformer Robert Owen, one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. His social philosophy influenced life at New Lanark, providing decent homes, fair wages, free health care, a new education system and the first workplace nursery ever!
New Lanark is now a living community, with a mixture of residential housing, a hotel and youth hostel and a visitor centre for people to enjoy!
What to do?
The Visitor Centre takes you through the history of the cotton mill village and lets you explore the full site. You can visit Robert Owen’s School for Children, the millworkers and Robert Owen’s house, the village store and see the textile machinery at work.
Walkers can go for a stroll along the Clyde; New Lanark is surrounded by native woodlands and is very close to the Falls of Clyde. Your chances of spotting some wildlife are pretty high! You can pop into the Falls of Clyde Visitor Centre to learn more about this beautiful natural reserve.
How to get there?
Cycle
The Clyde Walkaway runs almost entirely along the River Clyde. This cycling route takes you from Glasgow to the Falls of Clyde near New Lanark.
Train
A service runs from Glasgow Central Station (Lower Level) to Lanark every 30 minutes. This service runs approximately every hour on Sundays.
Journey Time: 45 – 60 minutes
Price: £15 return (prices may vary).
Bus
If for some very justifiable reason you need to get a bus then the number 240x takes you from Buchanan Bus Station to Lanark approximately every hour. The bus service does not run on Sundays. Journey Time: 1hr - 1hr 25 minutes
Once you’ve reach Lanark, you can easily walk down to New Lanark in approximately 20 minutes. To go back up to the station, you can either walk again or get a bus which takes you from New Lanark Visitor Centre to both the train and bus stations.
