Family Fun In The Sun At New Lanark

Twitter is a wonderful thing, I don’t know how I’ve lived without it for so long! When a good friend mentioned that New Lanark World Heritage Site were looking for bloggers to promote all of their attractions, I wasted no time in sending a wee tweet their way!

 

New Lanark is a working mill village nestled in a little valley on the banks of the River Clyde. By ‘working mill village’, I mean that the mill still produces a large selection of wools and people still live in the surrounding houses – although most of the villagers are now private owners and not associated with the mill itself. New Lanark was founded in the 18th century by David Dale and quickly became famous under the modern management of Robert Owen, who ensured all workers were treated fairly and had a decent standard of living. There was access to education, a workplace nursery, and I was even surprised to learn that they had a ‘sick fund’, meaning all workers were seen by a doctor free of charge. With many of the original features of this heritage site still preserved, we were eager to learn more about the history and the surroundings!

 

While there is a working road leading down into the village, this is restricted to residents and disabled visitors. The main car park is situated at the top of a hill, with a long winding path leading down, which treats you to fantastic views of the site from the hilltop.

 

 

 

We arrived just in time for lunch, so we collected our tickets and headed to the nearest picnic area. Although New Lanark has its own café on site, we wanted to make the most of this rare sunny weather, so came prepared with packed lunches. After scoffing down all our treats, the kids were eager to get started, so we headed into the visitor centre to begin our tour.

 

Starting off in the engine room, we were able to see the huge steam engine that once powered the mill. Megan found this really interesting as she thought steam engines were only present on old trains, and had no idea they were used to run other machinery.

 

 

 

 

From the engine room, we were led across a bridge into Mill 3 and the start of the first attraction – The ‘Annie McLeod Experience’, which is a 12 minute dark ride taking you back in time to learn about life in an 19th century mill town. The carriages have two seats and are suspended from a track in the ceiling. Although they don’t move very fast, you are advised to keep your arms and legs inside at all times to avoid injury. Once on the ride, you are transported back in time and told all about little Annie and her family. You learn all about her standard working day and how her family live within the village. This is where we learnt about the sick fund and the education system, along with the general living conditions within the surrounding houses. I expected Logan to be terrified and want to get off, but he thoroughly enjoyed himself and constantly told us about how the ride was his favourite part!

 

After the ride, we were able to view the current machinery in operation, spinning some lovely strands of blue wool. As I’ve mentioned before, the mill still produces its own wool, although the conditions are a lot different now. There was one man overseeing the machinery while we watched, whereas in the past, there would have been several workers, with the children running around picking up all the fluffy bits from the floor.

 

From here, we were able to take the lift up to the newly refurbished roof garden. Luckily for us, the sun had chosen this moment to emerge from the clouds and show the garden for how beautiful it really was. The view from the top is absolutely fantastic and provides a perfect vantage point to see the rest of the site.
 

 

 

As it’s always difficult to keep kids amused for any length of time, we quickly moved on to our next stop on the tour – Robert Owen’s School For Children. The light, airy top floor classroom has been preserved in the style of the 1800’s, and even had little slates laid out for the kids to write on. They were also eager to try on the school uniform, although I don’t think Logan enjoyed wearing the dress as much as his sister!

As we left the school building, we noticed some badger signs, telling us the direction to the Falls of Clyde. Logan thought this was great and was eagerly running from sign to sign, until Paul grabbed his hand as the trail started properly. Once on the nature trail, children should always be within grabbing distance – the footpath falls away steeply at some points and the river is quite close, so it’s best to keep your kids near to avoid accidents. Although the weather was perfect for a leisurely stroll through the woods, Paul’s back was playing up, so we thought it best to stay at the mill to avoid further injury – although not before getting a few snaps!

As we headed back down the path, we came across the newly refurbished children’s play park – this was perhaps the only disappointing feature. For a play park, I would expect a variety of different play things, but there are only two climbing frames (one for older kids and one for younger kids) and some picnic benches. There is a story corner at the top of the park and a hut that was fenced off, but nothing else for the kids to play on. While Logan loved the wee climbing frame, both kids were quickly bored, so we didn’t spend too long hanging about.

On our way back to the start, we passed by the other three attractions which our passes allowed us entrance too – The Village Store, A Millworker’s House (c.1820 and 1930) and Robert Owen’s House. While Robert Owen provided fair wages and a high standard of living for his workers, the contrast between the living conditions of the owner and those of his workers was still huge. While Robert Owen had a large house, his workers were confined to one room where they ate and slept. Beds were rolled out from other ‘set in’ beds and entire families shared the same living space. This had improved slightly by the 1930s, with separate toilets and bedrooms, but families were still living in cramped conditions.

 

Exhausted from our whirlwind tour of the history of mill life, we thought everyone deserved a wee treat – what better than a couple of scoops of award winning New Lanark ice-cream?! The range of flavours was fantastic, they even had a Jaffa Cake ice-cream, which would have suited my friend Nikki perfectly! I decided to take a break from my diet and indulge in a wee tub of Mint Choc Chip and Raspberry Ripple – you can’t beat an ice cold treat on a hot summer’s day!

If you are stuck for places to visit this summer, New Lanark should definitely be high on your list! It’s great for the warm weather, but there are also plenty of things to see indoors if it starts to rain. We had an absolutely fantastic time and would be more than happy to visit again, perhaps to complete a few of the woodland walks along the river!

 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin