Larkhall to Eaglesham

Glasgow`s proximity to hills and lochs is its greatest asset. Its rail links too are second to none. For this trip through the tranquil backlands of Glasgow`s southern rim, it`s a short train ride to Larkhall (a 40 minute journey time from Partick) before hitting the bricks of North Lanarkshire.

To be sure, there are umpteen guides to cycling in and around Glasgow, none more so than Erl B. Wilkie's excellent 25 Routes In and Around Glasgow, but there's nothing quite like making your own route, and finding a way yourself.

This route from Larkhall to Eaglesham (in fact I always continue into Glasgow centre another 5km or so away since it's more or less all downhill) is sublime and passes through some wonderfully tranquil settings, mainly moor and farmland. The back roads are more or less empty, with the odd tractor and fellow cyclist, but there is plenty of life and aliveness. The route passes through the small villages of Glassford, Chapleton, Auldhouse and Polnoon, and affords us a glance at the past as we go.

The Avon water gorge at Millheugh not far from Larkhall - look out for the now defunct Glen Morgan viaduct (the second highest in Britain).

Two beautiful donkeys in a field.

The empty farm-roads behind East Kilbride are a joy to walk/cycle.

When all other cities seem to be growing (accreting matter) exponentially (metropolises morphing into megalopolises), there is a growth to Glasgow that transcends mere matter and which welcomes space. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a large influx of Irish and as the second city of the Empire and the ship-building capital of the world, Glasgow’s  population was ever-increasing, eventually reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. This established Glasgow as the fourth-largest city in Europe, after London, Paris and Berlin. Business was booming, but so, unfortunately, was the city, quite literally, with the shock and awe of industrialisation. Pollution and population were at an all-time high. Life expectancy (qualitatively and quantatively) at an all-time low. With so many people in so little space it appeared that congestion, if not tackled head-on, would galvanise its own population check.

Post-war Glasgow, however, saw a rapid dispersal in population with boundary changes and comprehensive urban renewal projects relocating people to peripheral new towns like East Kilbride and Cumbernauld. The spacing out of the city had become a necessity following the plagues of the inner-city slums. This, combined with the gradual decline of ship-building, allowed Glasgow to cleanse herself of the impurities that had hitherto benighted her wonderfully airy body. Successive changes and policies meant that Glasgow continued to ‘grow without growing’, to the point where today, in 2012, her population is around the Hippodamic ideal of 600,000, and her airs and waters are qualitatively cleaner.

Auldhouse - if it weren't for the cars you could be forgiven for thinking you had travelled back in time.

Approaching Eaglesham (note the wind turbines on the horizon to the right).

When travelling these high back-roads, (these empty horizons), this inspiring (and inspiriting) quality of spaciousness has a resuscitative property that always awakens and enjoys. It is a beautiful thing to live in a city and yet to be able to escape it so easily.

The only additions to the OS map of 2012, from the OS map of 1962, is, surprisingly, a couple of golf courses (Langlands and Torrance), and the gentle southerly expansion of East Kilbride to absorb the outlying farms of Whitehills and Greenhills. Myriad small farms remain, as do the access roads that lead to them.

The route in red is the one outlined here in the text. There is another route however, just as alluring, the one in purple via Stonehouse and Strathaven, the latter town well worth a visit for its village feel and its wonderful variety of architecture.

The route in purple here is the way back to Bell's Bridge if you decide to continue on from Eaglesham. It's a great run - all downhill, and utilising a rare green finger that cuts more or less all the way into the city centre from the country, relatively unimpeded. After Newton Mearns the way passes through Waulkmill Reservoir and its glen before reaching Priesthill. Just follow the main road straight on, down and up, and down again. At the point on the road opposite Kennishead station you'll need to cut through the golf course towards the trig point. From here, there is a right of way trail through the course down to the clubhouse where you come out onto the main road, straight across it and through (or over) the gate into Pollok Golf Course. Follow the path straight on until it veers off to the right into Pollok Country Park. Pass Pollok House, and just follow the now marked Route 76 to Bell's Bridge.