Important Info

Planned kilometres: 32 (cummulative 1249)

Kilometres walked: 26 (cummulative 1307)

% Completed: 72.4%

Weather: Overcast & Grey

Pubs visited: N/A

Pints: 0 (cummulative 155)

Kms per pint: 8.4

Blisters: 0 (cummulative 4)

 

Hamilton to Glasgow

I can’t believe that today is the end of the eighth week of my walk. The start at Cornwall seems a distant memory and as my whole trip plan is 78 days, I have just over three weeks left to get from Glasgow to John O’Groats.

 

One concern I have (besides my dodgy knee) is midges and an article in the Daily Mail earlier in the week hasn’t helped as it said that many people are claiming that this is the worst year for midges in Scotland. As they can’t fly in wind of more than 7 mph, I am hoping for some windy weather for the next couple of weeks.

 

My walk today is continuing along Clyde Walkway, however I have taken the road in a couple of areas to reduce distance walked by eliminating some long meandering sections that follow the river. On the first section I met up with Alastair who was out walking his dog along the river path. We had a good chat about my trip and he gave me some history on the area I was walking through. The walk took me past Bothwell castle, which was high up on the bank above the river.

I was following a walk plan and crossed the river by the appropriately names Green Bridge and this gave me a good view of the Uddingston viaduct which was last used in 1903. There were a couple of disused rail viaducts over the river Clyde on todays walk and they are closed off to access due to the poor condition of the structures.

On the way into Glasgow I came across this sign outside a pub which will gives you some idea of Glaswegian sayings. See how you go interpreting this foreign language.

Police box (Tardis?) on the way into town.

I had to take a photo of this pub mural. Take note of the sign at the top right which says ‘MacKinnons pub open 8am Mornin’. I’m not going back at 8am tomorrow to see if opening time is correct.

My accommodation in Glasgow is a one-bedroom apartment in the middle of the city which will be great to catch up on my laundry and be able to relax and cook a meal for myself as I am getting very sick of pub food as many of the menus have the same items. My apartment is in on the fourth floor of the building on the right (above the Greggs). .

Across the square from my apartment is the Glasgow city Chambers which is a very impressive building that takes up a whole block

Just down the road is the Gallery of Modern Art which has a statue of Duke of Wellington outside of it which always has traffic cones on it.

Cones have been placed on the heads of the statue (and sometimes the horse) since the 1980’s. The council removed the cones but within a couple of days another cone would appear in its place. In 2013 the council proposed a scheme to double the height of the plinth to deter the placing of cones, however there was a backlash from Glaswegian public and a ‘Keep the Cone’ Facebook page was started and within 24 hours they had 72,000 people opposed to the change. The council scrapped the plans for the change and today the statue is still adorned with traffic cones. I think this is a great example of people power and Glaswegian humour.