Chatelherault Country Park

As a family we love to make alternative pitstops on long car journeys instead of motorway services. On our drive to Loch Lomond we finally managed to stop at Chatelherault Country Park which is just off the M74 at Hamilton south of Glasgow. We ate our picnic and then had a brief walk around the 18th century hunting lodge built for the Duke of Hamilton:

We felt we hadn't really explored the grounds so on our way home we again stopped here for lunch. This time we took Sherlock on a wander around the estate. Even in the heat we found some cool and pleasant walks by the old pond. We even found some knights guarding the bench:

Behind the hunting lodge we discovered the Clyde Valley Woodlands national nature reserve with some tempting looking walks... of course we couldn't resist following one of them:

The path took us over the 11th Duke's bridge across the gorge as we hunted out the Cadzow Oaks:

The Cadzow Oaks have been dated to the mid 15th century meaning that they are over 600 years old:

We retraced our steps part of the way back in search of the ruins of Cadzow castle. With colour coded way marked trails it was easy to find our way around:

What is left of Cadzow Castle is held together with scaffolding and you can't get too close:

There is so much to explore and we know that we will be back on future trips to Scotland: