Strathclyde Country Park

This evening I felt the need of some fresh air so we decided to have a walk around the loch at Strathclyde country park – although I did take my umbrella.  I haven't been to this park for about 3 years - probably since I stopped running - 4.3 miles around the loch every Saturday morning unless training for a half marathon, then it needed to be a bit longer. 

 

Strathclyde Country Park lies about 10 miles south-east of Glasgow and is very popular as a tourist attraction, partly due to its history, but more so because of the attraction of the water sports available in and around the loch.  The park is situated on land that in the 19th century belonged to the Duke of Hamilton.  In 1850 Hamilton Palace Colliery was developed on the site when extensive coal seams were discovered.  Bothwellhaugh mining village was constructed by the Bent Coal Company for the miners and in 1910 there were 965 staff living in 458 houses of various sizes with only a few of them having baths. The pits provided work for over 1400 people and 2000 tonnes of coal were excavated from the site.  The colliery was closed in 1959 and the village of Bothwellhaugh was demolished due to the buildings falling into ruin. Although legend has it that the village lies submerged under the loch, it was in fact demolished before construction of the park in 1974.  I lived only about 6 miles from the park and I remember being fascinated by this story of a loch being constructed on top of a village. 

The Scottish Rowing Centre is based in Strathclyde Park and many rowing events are held on the loch. I remember that in 1986, a few years after I began running, we were running around the loch while the Australian rowing team were practising for the event in the Commonwealth Games, which took place on the loch.  In 2014 we went along to the park to watch the Commonwealth Games triathlon and sailing events taking place. 

Although the focus of the park is on recreation, a variety of habitats are present, including wetlands and native woodland.  While we were walking around the loch tonight there were well over 100 geese and ducks swimming on the loch in different locations.  On the downside we could also see lots of poisonous blue and green algae that has plagued the loch on several occasions and prevented several world and Scottish water sports events from taking place.  The authorities claim this is due to very heavy rainfall, common in the area at times!!