Cambuslang Park
Run time: 30:02
Distance covered: 3.2m (5.15km)
Soundtrack: Derren Brown, Confessions of a Conjuror
Conditions: cold morning
I grew up on Huntly Drive in Cambuslang, which is a short walk from Cambuslang Park. I was in the park with my buddies every day of those impossibly long summers back in the eighties, riding our bikes, playing soldiers, reading comic books, avoiding bullies, lunging out over precipices on rope swings, climbing rock faces we probably shouldn't have, discovering caves, trying to work up the nerve to venture into the underground culvert that carried the stream under Cairns Road, or the Witch's Tunnel, as it was known. Yes, my childhood was basically a less-supernatural Stephen King novel. The kind of childhood kids don't really have anymore.
The park today is very different to the way it was when I was growing up. In the late eighties and early nineties, it was an overgrown wilderness, full of untamed trees and bushes. There were derelict buildings and closed-off paths.
It's been maintained by a voluntary group called Friends of Cambuslang Park for the last decade or so, and they've made a huge difference. Those bushes have been paired back, the old bandstand has been demolished, there's a wetland, the old council steel fences have been replaced with more attractive ones, and the Witch's Tunnel has been sensibly fenced off. The war memorial has an added plaque listing all of the local men killed in the two world wars, along with their addresses. It's pretty sobering looking at all of the names attached to familiar addresses, and just the sheer number of them, for a modest size town.
The run itself was one I've done many times before: a couple of loops of the park, taking in the sports fields and the twisty path running down the gorge. It's a reasonably challenging run, lots of hills, and the type an amateur runner like me will feel in their thighs for a couple of days afterwards.
I'm happy the park is in such good hands, but I have to admit a part of me misses the wild, neglected and forgotten park of my childhood.
The park today is very different to the way it was when I was growing up. In the late eighties and early nineties, it was an overgrown wilderness, full of untamed trees and bushes. There were derelict buildings and closed-off paths.
It's been maintained by a voluntary group called Friends of Cambuslang Park for the last decade or so, and they've made a huge difference. Those bushes have been paired back, the old bandstand has been demolished, there's a wetland, the old council steel fences have been replaced with more attractive ones, and the Witch's Tunnel has been sensibly fenced off. The war memorial has an added plaque listing all of the local men killed in the two world wars, along with their addresses. It's pretty sobering looking at all of the names attached to familiar addresses, and just the sheer number of them, for a modest size town.
The run itself was one I've done many times before: a couple of loops of the park, taking in the sports fields and the twisty path running down the gorge. It's a reasonably challenging run, lots of hills, and the type an amateur runner like me will feel in their thighs for a couple of days afterwards.
I'm happy the park is in such good hands, but I have to admit a part of me misses the wild, neglected and forgotten park of my childhood.
Comments
Post a Comment