Falls of Clyde | |
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Location | New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland |
Coordinates | 55°39′12″N3°46′36″W / 55.65333°N 3.77667°W |
Total height | 26 m (84 ft) [1] [2] |
Watercourse | River Clyde |
The Falls of Clyde are a series of linns or waterfalls on the River Clyde, near Lanark, Scotland. They are renowned for their beauty and have frequently been painted by artists. There are four in total: Bonnington Linn, Corra Linn, and Dundaff Linn, all above Lanark, and Stonebyres Linn, some distance below the town. The highest and most impressive of the four is Corra Linn, with a fall of 84 feet (26 m). [1]
The area has long been a popular destination for visitors. The Wordsworths, Coleridge and Sir Walter Scott all visited the Falls. In 1802, William Wordsworth immortalised Corra Linn, the largest of the waterfalls, in verse. Corra Linn has also been painted by a number of artists, including J. M. W. Turner. The name comes from the Gaelic currach, a marshy place. A legend gives "Cora" as a daughter of King Malcolm II, who leapt to her death here whilst trying to escape imagined danger. [3]
Near Corra Linn is the Pavilion, built by Sir John Carmichael of Bonnington, probably in 1708. The Pavilion had mirrors on its back wall, and when the doors were opened visitors had the illusion of standing beneath the falls. The 15th-century Corra Castle is next to Corra Linn. It is now home to a good number of Daubenton's bat and of some Natterer's and whiskered bats. [4] Corra is Gaelic for "weir", and as Corra Castle's early history is vague, some historians believe it was an early possession of the Weirs, the principal landowning family in the county after the Dukes of Hamilton from the 13th to 19th centuries. Corehouse, built in 1844, the home of the Cranstoun family, is nearby.
The Falls of Clyde Site of Special Scientific Interest (formerly the Corehouse Nature Reserve), a part of the Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve, is an area of mixed woodland, including semi-natural native oakwoods and some areas of conifer plantation. It provides suitable habitat for badgers, roe deer, and over 100 species of bird. The site is well known for its resident breeding pair of peregrine falcons, which are protected during the breeding season by Operation Peregrine, providing security for the birds and a chance for the public to view the birds through scopes and CCTV. On 22 October 2011 at 1500 GMT a very rare pine marten was spotted within the reserve and was photographed. Within the reserve the Clyde River is suitable habitat for otters and kingfishers as well as the protected brook lamprey.
The Falls of Clyde Visitor Centre, operated by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, [5] features exhibits about the waterfalls, the woodland and the area animals, including a special bat display.
The Lanark Hydro Electric Scheme is situated between Corra Linn and Dundaff Linn, with a water inlet at Bonnington Linn, and is considered the oldest of the United Kingdom. [6]
The scheme was conceived in 1925 under the chairmanship of Sir Edward MacColl [7] and was completed in 1927 as the first hydro-electric power station in Scotland designed for public supply, rather than industry. The power station at Stonebyres was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer (who also acted as design advisor to the committee looking at the overall concept).
The plant generates approximately eleven megawatts of power. Another hydro-electric power station is situated near Stonebyres Linn, about three miles south of Corra Linn. This generates approximately six megawatts of power. Both stations are owned and operated by Scottish Power. [6]
Lanark is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9,050.
New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1785 and opened in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the mills there in a brief partnership with the English inventor and entrepreneur Richard Arkwright to take advantage of the water power provided by the only waterfalls on the River Clyde. Under the ownership of a partnership that included Dale's son-in-law, Robert Owen, a Welsh utopian socialist and philanthropist, New Lanark became a successful business and an early example of a planned settlement and so an important milestone in the historical development of urban planning.
The Clyde Walkway is a foot and mountain bike path which runs from Glasgow, Scotland, to just above the UNESCO World Heritage Site of New Lanark. The path runs close to the River Clyde for most of its length. It was completed in 2005, and is now designated as one of Scotland's Great Trails by NatureScot. The route is 65 kilometres (40 mi) long, and combines rural sections on the upper Clyde in South Lanarkshire, including the Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve and the Falls of Clyde, with urban walking through the centre of Glasgow. About 155,000 people use the path every year, of whom about 7,750 undertake multi-day journeys including those covering the entire route.
Jacob More (1740–1793) was a Scottish landscape painter.
Corehouse is a country house and estate, located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the south of Lanark, Scotland. The estate is by the Corra Linn Falls on the River Clyde, and close to the World Heritage Site of New Lanark. The house was designed by Sir Edward Blore for George Cranstoun, Lord Corehouse, and was completed in 1827.
Tillietudlem is a fictional castle in Walter Scott's 1816 novel Old Mortality, and a modern settlement in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
FortisBC is a British Columbia based regulated utility that provides natural gas and electricity. FortisBC has approximately 2,600 employees serving more than 1.2 million customers in 135 B.C. communities and 58 First Nations communities across 150 Traditional Territories.
The Bonnington Pavilion or Hall of Mirrors, now a ruin, is situated in the grounds of the old estate of Bonnington, near New Lanark, overlooking Corra Linn falls on the River Clyde in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Alternative names are the Corra Linn Pavilion and the Falls of Clyde summerhouse. It is said to have been the first Camera obscura built in Scotland. The name comes from the Gaelic 'currach', a marshy place. A legend gives 'Cora' as a daughter of King Malcolm II, who leapt to her death here whilst trying to escape imagined danger.
Ossian's Hall of Mirrors is a Georgian structure located at The Hermitage in Dunkeld, Scotland.
The Pykara is a river 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Ooty in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu with a village by the same name nearby. The Pykara River is considered very sacred by the Todas. It rises at Mukurthi peak, flows northwards, and then turns to the west after reaching the edge of the plateau. The river flows through Mukurthi, Pykara and Glenmorgan dams, and forms part of an important hydro-electric power project.
Glen Finglas is a glen in the Trossachs, in the Stirling council area of Scotland. It is an area of forest in Highlands of the former county of Perthshire, north of Brig o' Turk, close to Callander in Menteith. To the west is Loch Katrine.
Bonnington Falls were waterfalls submerged by dams on the Kootenay River between the cities of Castlegar and Nelson, in the West Kootenay region of southern British Columbia, Canada. The upper falls was named after the Falls of Clyde upper falls of Bonnington Linn.
Linn of Tummel is a 19-hectare (47-acre) woodland property at the confluence of the rivers Garry and Tummel, near Pitlochry in Perthshire, Scotland. It is owned and maintained by the National Trust for Scotland, and is adjacent to the Trust's property at Killiecrankie.
Cartland Craigs is a woodland on the outskirts of Lanark, South Lanarkshire, in Scotland. It is a national nature reserve and is one of six areas which together form the Clyde Valley Woodlands. The reserve is maintained by Scottish Natural Heritage.
The Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve (NNR) comprises six separate woodland sites in the Clyde Valley region of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. These six sites are located along a 12 km section of the River Clyde and its tributaries, and lie close to built-up areas such as Hamilton and Lanark on the southern outskirts of Greater Glasgow. The sites can be easily accessed by about two million people living in the surrounding urban areas, making the reserve unique amongst Scotland's NNRs, most of which tend to be located in more remote areas. The six sites are:
Stonebyres was an estate and country house in Lanarkshire, Scotland, belonging to the Weir, or de Vere, family from earliest recorded history. The Weir-de Veres were a cadet branch of the Weir family of Blackwood but were a powerful and sometimes rival branch of the laird of Blackwood, head of Clan Weir. The laird of Stonebyres was often styled Baron Stonebyres.
The Lanark Hydro Electric Scheme consists of two hydroelectric plants in the Clydesdale area of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are run-of-the-river power stations, using water from the River Clyde near to the Falls of Clyde. Bonnington Power Station gets its water supply from just above Corra Linn in New Lanark, while Stonebyres Power Station takes water from above Stonebyres Linn near Kirkfieldbank. Bonnington is the larger of the two stations, which between them can produce 17 MW.
Corra Castle is a ruined 16th-century castle within the Corehouse Estate near New Lanark, Scotland. It overlooks Corra Linn, one of the four waterfalls which make up the Falls of Clyde. In 1967 it became a scheduled monument.
Historical Tours in the Clyde Valley. Published by the Clyde Valley Tourist Association and the Lanark & District Archaeological Association. Printed by Robert MacLehose and Company Limited, Renfrew, Scotland. 1982.