Clyde valley

The journey southeast of Glasgow into Lanarkshire, while mostly following the course of the Clyde upstream, is dominated by endless suburbs, industrial parks and wide strips of concrete highway. The principal road here is the M74, though you'll have to get off the motorway to find the main points of interest, which tend to lie on or near the banks of the river. Less than ten miles from central Glasgow, Bothwell Castle lies about a mile northeast of the Blantyre millworkers' tenement in which the explorer David Livingstone was born. Five miles west of Blantyre, on the outskirts of the new town of East Kilbride, the National Museum of Scottish Country Life, set on a historic farm, offers a in-depth look at the history of agriculture in Scotland. South of here the Clyde winds through lush market gardens and orchards, before passing beneath the sturdy little town of Lanark, probably the best base from which to explore the valley. New Lanark, on the riverbank, is a remarkable eighteenth-century planned village. Ten miles further upstream, the country town of Biggar is a pleasant spot with a surprising number of rather quirky museums, and marks the transition from the industrial central belt to rolling Border country.

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