When you stop off in Lanark it doesn’t take long to discover who the town’s greatest sonwas. Standing in a niche above the doorway of St Nicholas Church, a statue of Sir WilliamWallace gazes out along the town’s wide High Street. It was in Lanark that Wallace had hishouse. A plaque marks the spot behind the present Clydesdale Bank. Here, too, in the “ootkirk” of St Kentigern he and his bride Marion were wed.
Following an unfortunate incident between Wallace and an English soldier, the first swordwas drawn in Lanark in what became the Wars of Independence – wars that would rumbleon until Bannockbum in 1314.
Like Wallace’s house, nothing but the site remains of Lanark Castle. Just below the oldcastle and through Castlebank Park, is the start of a steep, zigzagging track down thewooded hillside to the banks of the Clyde. It’s worth following this track as down by theriver it links with the Clyde Walkway leading to the world-famous cotton mills of NewLanark.
Being such a nice day- a rarity this summer – I couldn’t resist the temptation to continuebeyond the mills and re-visit the Corra Linn and the Falls of Clyde. With the wet summer Ikind of expected the falls to have had more water in them than they did but, just the same,framed by the woods, they posed well for the camera.
