Welcome to Clydesdale Outdoor Festival
Clydesdale describes the most southerly part of South Lanarkshire. It is an area of stunning natural beauty and of contrasting landscapes - the Southern Upland Boundary fault which runs across Clydesdale from Biggar to Crawfordjohn, separates gentle lowlands cut by the river Clyde and its tributaries from the high rolling hills of the Southern Uplands with their wide glaciated valleys.
Special section on travel through Lanarkshire on a Lands End to John O'Groats Challenge
Buy Walking in Clydesdale and Bike Lanarkshire books here
It is the perfect destination for those who want relatively gentle and interesting walks and cycles that are close to towns and amenities such as pubs serving good beer and good food to round off a day outdoors. The walk from the UNESCO World Heritage site at New Lanark along the banks of the Clyde as it surges through a narrow gorge and over spectacular waterfalls is perhaps the best riverside walk in the UK
For those seeking solitude or a more strenuous day out there is plenty on offer around Culter Fell and in the Lowther Hills. It surprises many to learn there are 21 of the 87 hills in southern Scotland over 2000 feet within Clydesdale or on its border with neighbouring counties.
Whether walking by the Clyde or high in Lowther hills or cycling the many miles of quiet back roads there is so much to discover as you walk. You can expect to encounter William Wallace, crusaders, Covenanters, lead and gold miners, Robert Burns and William Wordsworth. Look out also for, relics of the Bronze Age, roads built by Romans, memorials to bloody deeds, nesting peregrines and the great innovations of the Industrial Revolution.
A day out of doors in Clydesdale is never an end in itself. So come and join for the first Clydesdale Outdoor Festival.
