Wider World says:

Inspired by a suggestion from Werewegian, I am trying out a thread for pictures of a single river. You are invited to post the small versions of your shots of the Clyde on this thread.

Please set up your own threads for any river you are interested in. (To add the link, click on "All Sizes", then "Small", then copy link 1, and paste this into the thread.)


The RIVER CLYDE (Gaelic: Abhainn Chluaidh) is a major river in Scotland. It is the eighth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Two streams, the Daer Water and the Potrail Water, meet at Watermeetings to form the Clyde.

The Clyde runs for about 100 miles, falling 2000 feet from source to sea. The name probably comes from a Celtic word meaning 'cleansing'. Tacitus (AD90) called the river 'Clota'; it was 'Alcluith' to Bede (720), and by the 13th century it is 'Clud'.

From there it snakes northeastward before turning to the west, its flood plain used for many major roads in the area, until it reaches the town of Lanark. On the banks of the Clyde, David Dale and Robert Owen built their mills and the model settlement of New Lanark. The mills harness the power of the Falls of Clyde, the most spectacular of which is Cora Linn; a hydroelectric power station still generates electricity here. From New Lanark, the river turns northwest, before it is joined by the River Avon and flows into the West of Scotland conurbation. Between the towns of Motherwell and Hamilton the course of the river has been altered to create the artificial loch within Strathclyde Park. Part of the original course can still be seen, and lies between the island and the east shore of the loch. The river then flows through Blantyre and Bothwell, where the ruined Bothwell Castle stands on a defensible promontory.

Past Uddingston and into the southeast of Glasgow the river begins to widen, meandering a course through Rutherglen and Dalmarnock. Flowing past Glasgow Green, the river is artificially straightened and widened through the city centre. Seagoing ships can still come upriver as far as Finnieston where the PS Waverley docks. From there, it flows past the shipbuilding heartlands, through Govan, Partick, Whiteinch, Scotstoun and Clydebank, all of which housed major shipyards, of which only two remain. The river flows out west of Glasgow, past Renfrew, and under the Erskine Bridge past Dumbarton on the north shore to the sandbank at Ardmore Point between Cardross and Helensburgh. Opposite, on the south shore, the river continues past the last Lower Clyde shipyard at Port Glasgow to Greenock where it reaches the Tail of the Bank as the river merges into the Firth of Clyde. [Information from Wikipedia.]






Originally posted at 1:42AM, 10 January 2008 PDT (permalink)
Wider World edited this topic ages ago.