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New Lanark
November 7th, 2009
Today HD and I drove the short journey to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at New Lanark. When I first moved up here I went a couple of times, as it is a handy place for visitors and new people to be taken, but both times instead of looking round the village we did the walk by the river up to the Falls of Clyde. HD had never been, so this time we had a look round the village, which was built as an integral part of a large set of cotton mills and was very 
ahead of its time in terms of the social reforms incorporated into the community (such as education for all the children, a village shop which bought in food in bulk so it was much cheaper for the workers than going into town for food). The main reformer was the mill manager Robert Owen – there are quotes of his dotted all over the place, this is the one on the front gate to give you an idea of where he was coming from.
One good thing was the Annie McLeod experience, which involved us getting into a two seater seat a bit like a ski-lift or fairground ride and then get taken on a 10 minute ride explaining the daily life for people working 
in the mill, narrated by a 10 year old mill worker. The graphics were good, and there were parts where you rode down a corridor with pinpricks of light that I really liked. Obviously as we were moving the photo didn’t really work, but I kind of like the effect anyway!
After that we looked in on a room where the thread was spun, and then went up to the roof garden which gave great views over the entire village. Here are a few photos from that:
4 Responses to “New Lanark”
That’s such a nice photo of the two of you
I love that photo of the two of you, Jack – it brought a real smile to my face this morning.
New Lanark looks like a place I’d love to visit. How far afield is it from where you are, and in which direction? I guess it’d be a place for a nice day.
Smudgie New Lanark is South from Glasgow, past Motherwell, but easy to get to on the motorway. It’s well worth it, i’ve been with my parents, and they loved it, also with a family i’m friends with and they all loved it (children age 4, 6 and 8 at the time.)Definetly worth a visit.
Smudgie, if you find the M74 on the map, come off at junction 7 and it’s near the town (unsurprisingly) of Lanark. It’ll probably be marked something like “UNESCO Heritage village”. It’s about 25 miles from our house
(but it took us an hour due to Saturday pm traffic, especially in Lanark high st).
It’s well worth a visit, and I did think the Smudgelet might like it, especially if he liked Scotland Street School. Even the falls of Clyde walk is pretty non-strenuous, but gives some fantastic views.