A Ramble

Glasgow Ramblers is the local branch of an organization that promotes walking throughout the country. Volunteers organize weekly jaunts on Saturdays or Sundays and less frequent weekday ones that attract a friendly group of (mostly older) hikers who want to stay fit, see new places, and enjoy others’ company. I joined them this week for a 5-mile walk that started with a train ride to the eastern edge of the metropolitan area. About a 5-minute stroll from the station took us to the David Livingstone Centre, the home of the famed African explorer. A rather garish sculpture out front shows Livingstone fighting off a lion, which is clamping down on his arm (and rendered him partially crippled for the latter part of his life). Past the house, there’s a footbridge over the Clyde, which is more narrow but just as muddy as it is in the heart of the city. A trail along the river cuts up through the woods, carpeted in the season’s first wildflowers. You could be walking through Portland’s Forest Park except for the ruins of a medieval castle that beckon at the top of a ridge. Bothwell Castle, home of Archibald the Grim (seriously), is just a shell with signs warning of “falling masonry” but it’s still an impressive remnant of the 1200s. After strolling around the castle, we retraced our steps along the Clyde to the affluent village of Bothwell and a round of lattes. Eight of us made the trip and like a previous ramble I went on, it was a diverse group: from a violinist with the Scottish Royal Orchestra to retired teachers to a gentleman in ”sheltered care” who was delivered by his social worker. (I learned that sheltered care means someone who lives in a group home, usually for disabled people or recovering drug and alcohol abusers.) They’re an amiable group and for an outsider like me an insight into Scottish life, with conversation about the merits of toasted versus plain scones, why there’s no such thing as a queen-sized bed in this country, and revelations that Glaswegians who’ve been to the American West are uncomfortable there because they feel like they’re “being swallowed up by all that open space and sky.”