Kelburn Estate - Kelburn for Walks and Wildlife

Walks and the Kelburn Glen

One of Kelburn’s most outstanding features is its glen. In the space of just over half a mile, the Kel burn, which has helped to form the glen over thousands of years, rises on the moors 800 feet above the castle and drops dramatically, by way of many waterfalls and deep gorges, to the sea. The glen is a wealth of wild flowers and ferns, shrubs and trees, partly cultivated but predominantly wild.

Near the bottom of the glen and only 300 yards from the centre buildings, is the Waterfall Pool. At this point, the burn drops a sheer 20 feet into a spectacular grotto surrounded on three sides by overhanging cliffs of red and yellow sandstone. The pool below is small but deep and traps some sea trout that are unable to make further progress up the burn.

The glen has changed greatly over the years. The seventh Earl of Glasgow at the turn of the century employed seven foresters, whose principal job was to maintain the estate and particularly the paths and bridges in the glen. But before Kelburn Country Centre opened to the public in 1977, many paths had become overgrown and bridges had long rotted away. So, with financial aid from the Countryside Commission for Scotland, old paths and bridges were re-established and new ones built for visitors to cross the burn at half-way points on the way to the top. Until then, only two bridges were named – the attractive eighteenth century stone bridge at the top of the glen was known as the Bow Brig and the footbridge at the bottom, linking the centre buildings to the castle was Sanham’s Bridge. Originally this was called the Jubilee Bridge, in honour of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, but, because Frank Sanham, butler to the eighth and ninth Earls of Glasgow, used to cross it, often in the dark, four to six times a day for thirty years to reach his house in the centre buildings, it was renamed Sanham’s Bridge. The Kelburn Bridge over the Waterfall Pool has always been there, but the New Bridge and Three Falls Bridge have both been built since 1977, and the most recent, Martindale Bridge, which leads to a pool at the foot of one of the burn’s most attractive gorges, is named after the late estate joiner who was responsible for this and all the other new bridges in the glen.

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Walks and the Kelburn Glen