Drumpellier Country Park

Drumpellier Country Park is a country park situated to the west of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The park was formerly a private estate. The land was given over to the Burgh of Coatbridge for use as a public park in 1919, and was designated as a country park in 1984 by the then Monklands council, part of Strathclyde. The park covers an area of 500 acres (200 hectares) and comprises two natural lochs (one of which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)), lowland heath, mixed woodlands and open grassland. The Monkland Canal lies towards the southern perimeter of the park. The lochs and the canal attract many water birds, both resident (such as swans and mallard ducks) and over-wintering migrants, and the loch shores and woodland floor provides an abundance of wild flora. The woodlands are also rich in bird life, small wild animals and many types of fungi. The lochs at Drumpellier are part of a chain of kettle ponds formed towards the end of the last ice age. As the glacier that covered most of Scotland slipped down towards the sea it churned up great tracts of land. This created the great lochs, such as Lomond and Linnhe, and also produced small pockets of water such as the Garnkirk chain of Hogganfield, Frankfield and the Bishops Lochs (an SSI that comes under Glasgow City Councils administration) that include Drumpellier's Lochs, Woodend and Lochend. The lochside path is approximately one mile (1.5 kilometres) long and it is suitable for bikes. Since July 2019 the park has been the location of Drumpellier Country Parkrun.