Babs Blog

After waking up to a lovely sunny Sunday morning the rest of the day did not disappoint. 

Our walk today was from the Mid Calder entrance to Almondell and Calderwood Country Park to Linn Aqueduct.

After a slight delay caused by local road closures we set off into the park, walking alongside the River Almond before reaching the base of the massive arches of Calder Viaduct. This part of the rail network was closed in 1959 and is now part of the path network. Onwards, then crossing the Almond river again by way of the substantial stone built Naysmyth bridge named after the architect who built it.

For those who asked how the river got its name I have learned that Almond/ Amon is the  Celtic word for river. So this is the river River. 

Shortly after walking along the top paths in the park we dropped right down into the visitor centre area for our tea break. Very handy picnic tables and loos were available and

it was lovely just to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the chitchat going on.

The next section of path had sprouted a lot of new growth since my last recce but it wasn’t too bad. All the stiles we came across on this path had been repaired which made my warning of only one style a little bit redundant. Good to see that a maintenance team is working in this area. 

If only they could do something about the steps which was our next obstacle. Quite steep with massive depth to each one. I am guessing these were installed by a man who didn’t read the memo about the length of the average ladies legs. 

A short walk from the top and we reached the canal, the Linn Aquaduct and our lunch break sitting alongside some hopeful fishermen. We retraced our steps as the circular route is a rather tedious walk by canal towpath then a very long road walk.

Once back at the cars we tried to leave in convoy as I was leading everyone to a new for us coffee shop. Lucky for me it turned out to be very nice with a good selection of cakes. 

All in all not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Thanks to all who came and thanks to Billy for being my back marker.

Babs 

Photos courtesy of Betty, Billy and Ray

To see all the photos on our Flickr page follow this link Almondell Park and Linns Aquaduct