Day Trip to Rouken Glen Park

My #take12trips expedition in March was short and local. On a rare warm, sunny spring day I took a day trip to Rouken Glen Park in East Renfrewshire, Scotland.

Despite living within a 10 minute drive of Rouken Glen Park, I hadn’t been there for well over 15 years.

Rouken Glen Park (back in the day)

I have vague memories of visiting the park as a young child. Armed with a picnic basket containing luke-warm cheese sandwiches and diluted orange juice, my parents, brother and I would load my dad’s car with a bat and ball, a frisbee, skipping ropes and a football and take the 45 minute journey from my home town of Troon to the outskirts of Glasgow for a day of park life.

What and Where is Rouken Glen Park?

Located in East Renfrewshire, around 6 miles south of Glasgow City Centre, Rouken Glen boasts over 140 acres of green space. It’s home to a boating pond, a children’s play area, a skate park, a river, spectacular waterfalls, abundant wildlife, woodland and walking trails, and it oozes natural beauty.

With Green Flag Status and designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological importance, it’s little wonder that Rouken Glen was voted the UK’s best park in 2016 and has a 4 star visitor attraction rating from Visit Scotland. 

#take12trips

I had a ‘use or lose’ days holiday to take from work, so I decided to use it  to briefly explore this award winning park right on my doorstep. As #take12trip challenges go, it was a very short trip (around 2 hours in total) but the whole point of the 12 trip challenge is that every trip, big or small, near or far, counts. On my visit to Rouken Glen, I also ticked off 3 of my 17 travel goals for 2017. Result!

The Glen River Walk

I started my trip to Rouken Glen at the Walled Garden, a peaceful oasis near the main entrance car park on Rouken Glen Road.

From there I headed into the forest where I took the ‘low road’ along the Glen River Walk.

The Glen River Walk consists of two main trails, one above the Auldhouse Burn, and the other along the banks of the Burn. Both are relatively easy walks, although the ‘low road’, the trail alongside the Burn, was a bit uneven and muddy. It was perfect for me, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it for wheelchair users or prams.

The two trails meet and intertwine via a series of paths, bridges and steps.

At the end of the trail, I reached the bottom of a magnificent waterfall next to the locally named ‘devils staircase’. The staircase has 100 steps to the top of the waterfall. It’s named the devil’s staircase because there’s a carving of the image of a devil on the fiftieth step. Apparently the image was carved by one of the masons who built the staircase in reference to the hell the workers went through to build it.

Unfortunately I never found the carving (I didn’t know to look on the fiftieth step) but I did walk the 100 steps to the top to to see and hear the water thundering down into the Burn below.

The Boating Pond

I walked over the bridge at the top of the waterfall and the trail became a path, which opened up to The Boating Pond.

On first sight of the pond, I fondly remembered feeding ducks and running away from swans here as a child.

At the far side of the pond, The Boathouse Cafe serves light lunch, tea, coffee as well as ice cream on a sunny day. I stopped for some ice cream before making my way through the large green events and games area, next to the children’s play park, back to the main entrance car park.

Rouken Glen Park is definitely the best park I’ve visited in Scotland, and one of the loveliest places I’ve been in a long time.

I’m loving the 12 trip challenge.