Forest bathing at Dalzell Estate

Dalzell is a designed landscape of about 94 hectares on the edge of Motherwell, owned by the Hamilton family from 1647 until 1952. One eighteenth century laird was a keen planter of rare trees, and the estate still has oaks and beeches around 200 years old, an arboretum, and the Covenanters Oak near the house, said to be the oldest living thing in North Lanarkshire. The Dalzell Burn has cut a narrow sandstone gorge on its way down to the Clyde.

Five colour coded routes of different lengths cover the estate, so you can choose a short loop or stay out for the afternoon. The woodland paths that follow the gorge west of the house are the place to slow down, with the sound of the burn below. Look out for the Japanese Garden by the burn, where bamboo and Japanese maples survive from the early 1900s. The estate runs straight into the RSPB's Baron's Haugh reserve on the river marshes, which adds wetland birds to a longer walk.