Falls of Clyde

The Falls of Clyde are a series of waterfalls on the River Clyde just above New Lanark, the restored 18th-century cotton-mill village that’s now a World Heritage Site. The biggest, Corra Linn, drops in stages of around 27 metres and was a fixture on the tourist trail two centuries ago — Turner painted it, and Wordsworth and Coleridge came to see it. You reach the falls on foot from New Lanark along the Clyde Walkway, a wooded riverside path kept as a wildlife reserve by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, with peregrine falcons on the gorge and a badger hide along the way. One thing to know before you go: the river is tapped for a hydro-electric scheme, so the falls often run low — they’re at their best after heavy rain or on the occasional advertised days when the dam is opened.