New Lanark and Falls of Clyde
From a Model Milling Community to a Dramatic Gorge and Waterfalls
The walk begins in the village of New Lanark and leads through a river gorge to the falls of Bonnington Linn and back again. In the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century — before steam engines were in widespread use — factories had to be sited where there was an adequate water supply to power new machinery, often locating them far from major towns and cities in remote rural settings. To entice skilled labor to these remote sites, factory owners provided incentives such as higher wages, better housing with reasonable rents, and facilities like shops and places of worship, as communities grew around them. New Lanark is the best-known and best-preserved of these early cotton mill communities, established in 1784 by Glasgow entrepreneur David Dale and mechanised cotton spinning pioneer Sir Richard Arkwright.
