Success Stories

Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park
The Great Escape

"The overall aim of Clyde Muirshiel Park Authority is to provide a well managed quality landscape offering tourists, day visitors, locals and education groups access to a wide range of countryside recreational opportunities. "

Charlie Woodward, Regional Park Manager

Just 20 miles from Glasgow - with 9 visitor sites Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park aims to cater for as many types of visitor as possible.

For example, Lunderston Bay, near Gourock, will be flying the yellow flag for the Rural Seaside Award again. The bay, managed by Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, needs to pass strict checks for beach management, facilities and water quality that comply with the European Bathing Water Directive. Now that a new sewage treatment system has been built locally this should be achievable.

Communities within the Park were asked in a recent survey to find out what sort of facilities they wanted. Local people as well as national and regional bodies were involved in the review to make sure the Park met their needs. The recommendations now form the basis for a new Park Strategy.

The Park continues to support communities around the Park. Rangers at the Park's Cornalees Centre at Loch Thom have been helping with the creation of a Wemyss Bay Community Woodland on the site of a very over-grown Victorian informal garden. Park Rangers have also been involved in the creation and subsequent management of Community Woodlands in Brisbane Glen and Locherwoods.

The Park hosts a number of Farmer's Markets providing local producers, including those farming in the hills of the Regional Park, with a local outlet for their produce.

The Park also caters for many activities that require 'natural power' such as sailing, mountain biking and orienteering.

The recently completed SWAN project (Semple Water Access Initiative) now provides:

'access friendly' pontoons suitable for wheelchairs and large numbers of competitors during rowing regattas
a larger slip gives quicker water access for sailors and canoeists
landscaping that segregates vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians to improve safety.

Live CCTV pictures of hen harriers, nesting and flying over the moors have been viewed at the Muirshiel Centre in 2003. It was a successful first year for this multi-partnership project which is set to become an annual spring/summer attraction. The project allows visitors to see live pictures of the birds without disturbing them during the sensitive breeding season. The pictures can be viewed all day while the Centre is open. Weekly guided walks across the moorland into the Hen Harrier hunting territory also take place.

Working Together Icon SRANI (South Renfrewshire Area Network Initiative) aims to improve non-motorised access to routes in the Park from local commuter stations and betweem communities. The multi-partnership project aims to create all sorts of excursions from short rambles to full day walks linking landscape and built heritage all the way around Castle Semple Loch. The feasibility study has already been completed.

heritage conservation A Heritage Lottery Award has been granted for the restoration of the Greenock Cut - a 5.5 mile listed ancient monument that carried water to the people of Greenock. The project includes the provision of safe access along the route, as well as education and interpretive material on what was Inverclyde's world leading 19th Century mill power.

For further information please contact:

Fiona Carswell
Development and Marketing Officer
Park Headquarters
Barnbrock
Near Kilbarchan
Renfrewshire
PA10 2PZ

Tel: 01505 614791
Fax: 01505 613605
Email: info@clydemuirshiel.co.uk
Web: www.clydemuirshiel.co.uk

Photos by David Warnock
Case Study updated on 03 December 2003

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