North Calder Heritage Trail - Action to Protect Rural Scotland

A level way-marked route along the historic route of the North Calder Heritage trail finishing at the Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life

The walk marked in blue is around 12km long and will take 3-4 hours to walk. It is on the route of a marked path but can be overgrown in summer and some parts can be muddy. Some of the way-markers are damaged, missing or overgrown. This website describes the Heritage elements of the route.

The route starts at Drumgelloch station and, when you have visited Sumerlee Museum of Industrial Life, you can head to Coatbridge Sunnyside station for the train back to Drumgelloch, or to Coatbridge Central station for other destinations.

You can cut the route slightly shorter by heading straight to Coatdyke station when you reach the end of the canal in Coatbridge.

I created this route on the Ordanance Survey App. To see the route on the App or in a map on your screen

See route on screen

If you use a mapping app you can download this route to your app. To get the GPX file click below.

Download GPX file

Getting to the start

The route starts at Drumgelloch Train station which has trains from Glasgow and Edinburgh and also has a large park and ride car-park.

Public Transport

Drumgelloch Train station has trains on the low-level line at Glasgow Queen Street and to Edinburgh and also direct trains to Dumbarton.

The route finishes at Summerlee Museum which is next to Coatbridge Central train station and a 5 minute walk from Coatbridge Sunnyside where you can get a train back to Drumgelloch.

Summerlee has information on getting there on their website

Other Information

The Summerlee Museum

The Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life is an industrial and social history museum. It is situated on the site of the Victorian Summerlee Iron Works and the former Hydrocon Crane factory. You can visit the mines, and the old cottages, there is a steam train onsite and

visit the museum

The Heritage of the Trail

The North Lanarkshire Museums have a website explaining the heritage that you can see along the North Calder Heritage Trail including the Coatbridge Mines Rescue, the ironworks, disused railways, the Monklands Canal, the historic estates of Palacecraig and Woodhall and the Monklands Forge.

explore the history

The Route

Please use the GPX files and a maps app, or a paper map when taking this route. The description below is not intended to be used without a map!

Start at the Park-and Ride car park at Drumgelloch Railway station and walk along Katherine Street to get onto Towers road where you turn right and cross the railway until you see the Forest and Land Scotland sign on the left.

Through the wooden gates you will get onto the Calder Heritage trail which you will follow for the whole walk. It is labelled but some of the sign posts are hard to see, overgrown, or broken so keep a look out. The day I walked the route at the end of July, some parts in the middle were quite overgrown but if you follow the map route it should keep you on the right path!

Walking between wild raspberry bushes on the way down to the Calder.

The North Calder Heritage Trail is marked with these Iron way-markers

There are weirs and other evidence of previous industrial infrastructure along the route

After walking along the back fences of houses you will see this bridge over the Calder- cross this bridge and head up to towards the road.

This is the entrance to the footpath again after you have crossed the road. It is a little overgrown but at least well-marked! After about a kilometer you cross another footbridge over the Calder and then head uphill towards the housing estates at the edge of Airdrie.

The path follows this route at the back of housing for a hundred metres before heading back into the woods along an indistinct (in summer) break between the trees

This metal post marks the Calder Heritage Trail but you can only see the logo from the other side. The path becomes more distinct once you are back into the woodland

The route then follows through lovely mature woodland for a bit less than a kilometer until it reaches the main road A73, Carlisle Road. Turn down Woodvale Avenue, where you will see a small marker for the Heritage Trail on the road sign.

The path onward is a small route between gardens that is marked with a small Heritage Trail logo on a lamp post. It then crosses a stone bridge.

There’s quite a few paths across this lovely meadow area with regenerating hawthorns on the edge of Chapelhall.

At this point, the route onward could be confusing. There are three routes to choose from and the Calder Heritage Trail marker is overgrown. The correct route is to take the steps to the right. The steps take you down to the Calder where there is a bridge – don’t cross this first bridge, but head leftwards and along the river. Until there is an opportunity to cross the river as it goes under a large culvert.

At this signpost take the route right – towards Calderbank

The route takes you under the B802 at Calderbank through this tunnel

You will soon join the Monklands canal and a wider route for the rest of the walk.

Ann Glen and Kathleen Wurthman have campaigned for better access for locals to their countryside and helped get the Calder Heritage Trail set up. They have also campaigned tirelessly for the Monklands Canal and it’s heritage to be recognised. Here they show us Maggie’s Bridge, which they are campaigning for repairs that will maintain the bridge as an access route to the canal footpath for people from Calderbank.

The path follows the Monklands Canal to the edge of Coatbridge where it enters an aqueduct underground and the path continues through greenspace above it.

This is where the Heritage Trail passes under the Locks Street Railway Viaduct which was built in the 1880’s and carried the Caledonian Line between Rutherglen and Airdrie. The route continues to Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Heritage which is very much worth a visit, and you can catch a train back to Drumgelloch from Sunnyside Station.