The Greenlink Cycle Path is a

cycle path A bike path or a cycle path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "C ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

that is a direct route running from

Strathclyde Country Park Strathclyde Country Park is a country park located on the outskirts of Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, named after the former Strathclyde region of Scotland. It is often commonly referred to as Strathclyde, or simply Strathy. Desc ...

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

Town Centre. The path is 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) in length. The Greenlink project was established in 2005, and was part of a 3-year partnership between many organisations, such as

North Lanarkshire Council North Lanarkshire Council is one of the 32 local authorities of Scotland, covering the North Lanarkshire council area. The council is the second largest Scottish council by number of councillors, having 77 members. Political control The counci ...

, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland.

The route

The path begins at the

Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort is a site now located within Strathclyde Country Park in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is east of where the South Calder Water flows into Strathclyde Loch. The fort is a scheduled monument. Location Before the flood ...

in Strathclyde Country Park, and travels through the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

area of the park, going over the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The path then goes through

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

golf course and along the south-east of the town, then travelling over the South Calder Water and the A721. It by-passes the Forgewood suburb of Motherwell heading towards Braidhurst High School, and subsequently travels under the Argyle Line heading towards the new site of the Cathedral Primary School and Fir Park nursery joint campus. The path concludes when it runs through the residential housing area and stops at the Aquatec sports centre next door to the town centre.

Future Plans

There are plans in future to extend the cycle path beyond Motherwell town centre to connect to the new town of Ravenscraig. The initial plans prior to formation of the path was to create a direct route from Strathclyde Park to the site of the former Ravenscraig steelworks. Those plans were put on hold due to the delay in the regeneration of Ravenscraig, and so the link only stops at Motherwell town centre.

Awards

In 2011, the cycle path received the Level 3 ''It's Your Neighbourhood '' award from Beautiful Scotland for developing. That same year, the cycle path also received an award for ''Scotland's finest Woodland'', presented to them by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, at the Royal Highland Show.

External links

Official Website

Greenlink Cycleway First Newsletter

References

{{North Lanarkshire places of interest Bellshill Motherwell Cycleways in Scotland Tourist attractions in North Lanarkshire 2005 establishments in Scotland