The

Monklands Ramblers

hillwalking club

We are one of the largest R.A. clubs in Scotland, and the first Scottish R.A. club on the Internet! We are based in the Monklands area of Central Scotland in North Lanarkshire, some 12 miles east of Glasgow. The two major towns in the area are Airdrie and Coatbridge, and it is from these towns that the majority of our 150+ members come from. There are also a significant number of members from other areas of Lanarkshire, in particular, Hamilton and Blantyre.

The club was formed in the summer of 1985 by a few local people who were interested in hill-walking. At that time the walks were fairly informally organised and people travelled to the walks in cars. Nowadays we are organised into a proper club with a full elected committee. Our members consist of people from all walks of life ranging in age from 10 – 80.

We run a 50 seater coach to all of our walks (which are always covered beforehand by the leaders), we have walks programmes which cover Scotland and northern England and cater for all levels of fitness. Monklands Ramblers also has an active social scene with dances, quiz nights and ten-pin bowling outings organised by the committee.

The club has actively and successfully campaigned for rights of way to be maintained and enhanced in the North Lanarkshire area. We have also become very much a part of the local community with frequent acknowledgement of our activities in the local press. The club is extremely successful simply because of the effort and support shown by the members. We consider ourselves a friendly bunch of people who always have a great time irrespective of the unpredictable Scottish weather!