Dougal's Dog Blog. SPECIAL PREVIEW: Strathclyde Country Park

You know how it is that your mobile phone always goes off at the most inconvenient moment?

So there I was on the Hebridean island of Harris with my head down a rabbit hole, and for the first time in my life I actually came face-to-face with a bunny rabbit.

The only problem was, I wasn’t sure what I was meant to do next. The rabbit didn’t seem too perplexed as she simply carried on texting her boyfriend. And it was at this precise moment that my own mobile went off.

It was the lovely Ro on the Dog & Bone. You know, that smiley lady from Club Together who smells really nice.

‘Dougal, I have an important job for you,’ she said to me as the bunny rabbit finished texting her boyfriend and started to file her claws with the kind of industrial sander that made me get my head out of that burrow PDQ.

‘There are a lot of members on Club Together who are slathering to find out about our new site at Strathclyde near Glasgow. You know, the one that’s opening on the 26^th of October? Well, is there any chance you could swing by with that funny Human that you Own and give us a bit of a heads-up on what it’s going to be like?’

Did I know about the new site at Strathclyde? DID I KNOW? Put it this way, The Human hasn’t stopped wittering on about it since the day he found out that the Club was in the process of redeveloping it.

‘It’ll be perfect, just perfect for us!’ he sung while dancing in a most distressing fashion around the Tin Can on Wheels. ‘We go from Kent to Scotland two or three times a year with the ‘van, and this will be the perfect place to stop off for a night or two and break the journey! Perfect, just perfect!’ he squealed. If I cared, I’d worry about him.

Of course, being within barking distance of Glasgow means that it’s one of those places where you’ll stop off for a night and no doubt end up staying for a week.

I like Glasgow. I’ve been there before and we went to a really, really nice doggie-friendly pub serving good food for humans, called The 78 Café Bar on Kelvinhaugh Street. In fact, forget everything you’ve heard about Deep Fried Mars Bars and other such nonsense, the Human assures me that Glasgow is one of his favourite cities as far as food goes. And he’s a fussy eater.

So… what about the site itself?

Well, we visited at the end of September, four weeks before the site was due to open. And, to this canine at least, it looks like the Club has completely skewed its priorities.

All the hardstanding pitches were complete, the roadways, the loo blocks for humans, the caravan storage area, and late night arrivals area. But the dog walk wasn’t yet ready! How very dare they. But the very very lovely warden Olwyn assured me that it will be ready by opening. The dog walk is going to be of the ‘path’ variety, not the open field type, and will follow two sides of the storage compound. I glanced over at the storage area. It’s massive! It put me in mind of the one in Cadeside in Somerset. So that will be a good 10 minutes walk there-and-back.

But that’s not all.

The site is called Stathclyde Country Park. Think about that for a minute my canine pals. You know what that means? Yep, it’s slap bang wallop in the middle of a country park! In other words, directly opposite the site entrance is a short path leading to an open field for endless games of ball. Wander a little further and you come to the lake surrounded by even more ball-friendly green spaces. And if you really fancy a walk? According to the lovely Olwyn, the path around the lake is 3.5 miles in length. WOW!

Have a scroll across the photographs above, as one is taken in what will be the dog walk area next to the storage compound, and one of the others shows me in the Country Park. 

About 400yds from the site is an amusement/theme park where I’m allowed to go in, but I’m not allowed into the food areas. Going out for the evening with the most important member of the family (i.e. the dog) would involve driving off the country park complex.

And it is for this latter reason that Strathclyde Country Park narrow scrapes a full house on the Bone Rating, but very comfortably achieves a 4/5.

Of course, if one of the local bars or restaurants reviews their dog policy then the site would get a five. The good news is that we’ve already booked a stay here in January, so look out for an update. And if the Human that you Own wants to know more about the site, tell him or her to have a browse around Club Together as my very own Human is writing about their facilities elsewhere on the site, and they should be posted within the next day or two.