Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Greenock Cut

This aqueduct was built by engineer Robert Thom between 1825 and 1827. It takes water from the reservoir below Loch Thom and delivers it to Greenock. The aqueduct follows the contours of the hills at 541 feet, completing a route of 5 miles and collecting water from streams and small reservoirs along the way. Opened in 1827, the Cut was originally known as the Shaws Water, taking its name from the Shaws Burn.

Now set within the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, it's lovely to follow the footpath and there are great views over the Firth of Clyde. We last walked there in October 2007 (when I took the photo above).

See also here for an interesting website.

My later photos of the Cut here

8 comments:

Denis Bell said...

Hi Jane, very many thanks again for your supportive comments- well appreciated. I like your scope, we are of similar minds...
I've trotted around the Cut walk and over the back to the fishing lodge..it's great bit of country..I love the old works like this that show Victorian inventiveness and practicality/ pragmatism.....If you haven't done any researching yet, also look at the Katrine -> Milngavie waterway - it's a colossally impressive bit of forward thinking - I bet they kept that near enough on budget!

All the best, Denis.

Jane said...

Thanks again Denis. I imagine that fishing lodge is where we stopped to have tea last year (the nearby Cornalees Centre being closed). The owner was a young friendly ex-policeman - we stayed and chatted to him for some time. Thanks for the tip about the other waterway - I've started reading up on it and just discovered that Glasgow gets her water from Lochs Lomond and Katrine now! There are a lot of great places to discover - I need to move back to do the job properly though!

Gerard Ward said...

Nice picture Jane,I have known about The Greenock cut for a long time,but as of yet I have never paid it a visit.Hope to remedy that shortly!

Jane said...

Thanks Gerry, I hope you get over there sometime - it's well worth a trip, especially in good weather of course.

Denis Bell said...

Your structure and commentary is great Jane, well done..so very interesting all of it! Kind regards, Denis.

Jane said...

Many thanks Denis,
Best wishes, Jane

Anonymous said...

Great photo. I never tire of walking the Cut. Robert.

Jane said...

Thanks Robert!