A further look at Blantyre’s Rights of Way. From an ex-council book.

Station Road to John Street Right of Way, Council reference BL/2.

“This right of way begins behind the new housing opposite the entrance to the David Livingstone Memorial Park and was recently reconstituted prior to being incorporated into the Clyde / Calder Walkway. It is 3 feet wide with stone chip tarred surface. Where it crosses a burn near the John Street, there is a sleepered stairway down and up from a small footbridge. The right of way ends in a small landscaped area at the bottom of John Street, overlooking the River Clyde, at a bend between Craighead and Livingstone Bridge.

This right of way is part of a network of paths around the old Blantyre Village – to the Village School, the houses of the Village, the Burial Ground with connections to the former suspension toll bridge to Bothwell. The path led to the Works, alongside the Railway Bridge connecting to John Street – Foundry, Engineering Works, Abbatoir and Saw mills. At the start is the David Livingstone Park and Museum and the site of the large Cotton Mill (set up by Christopher North and David Dale), Dye Works, and Madder Mill where David Livingstone worked as a boy. The dam which can be seen from the right of way is still used to provide power for a mill producing sawdust for a variety of industrial purposes. Also visible from the Pathway are St Brides Church, Bothwell, Hamilton County Buildings, Bell College, the remains of the viaduct which carried the LNER Railway between Bothwell and Burnbank and Hamilton, also the Livingstone footbridge, built to replace the old suspension bridge. The area around the small footbridge and burn is wooded with species of Sycamore, Rowan, Ash, Popular, Hawthorn, Willow and Broom. Orange tip Butterflies have been found in this area.”

Pictured in October 2015 is a Roe Deer near John Street, the photo taken by Jim Brown.