Lanark

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Coordinates: 55°40′29.65″N, 3°46′37.27″W

This article is about the town in Scotland. For other uses, see Lanark (disambiguation).

**Lanark**
Statistics

Population:	Approximately 16,000
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	Maps for NS8843
Administration
Council area:	South Lanarkshire
Constituent:	Scotland
Country:	United Kingdom
Other
Police force:	Strathclyde
Lieutenancy area:	Lanarkshire
Former county:	Lanarkshire
Post office and telephone
Post town:	Lanark
Postal district:	ML11
Dialling code:	01555
Politics
Scottish Parliament:	Clydesdale
UK Parliament:	Lanark and Hamilton East
European Parliament:	Scotland

Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland, the county town of the former county of Lanarkshire. It has a long history, old traditions, and some fine parks and buildings. Lanark has a railway and a coach station, with frequent services to Glasgow. There is little industry in Lanark. The shops serve the local agricultural community and surrounding villages. There is a large modern livestock auction market on the outskirts of the town. Some residents commute to work in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The town has a serious traffic problem.

1 History
2 Lanark Lanimers
3 Railway station
4 Music
5 Notable Lanarkians
6 Points of interest
7 References
8 Maps
9 Photographs
10 See also

[edit] History

The historic burgh of Lanark was the location of the first meeting of the Scots Parliament in 978.

Lanark has served as an important market town since medieval times, and King David I made it a Royal Burgh in 1140, giving it certain mercantile privileges relating to government and taxation. King David I realised that greater prosperity could result from encouraging trade. He decided to create a chain of new towns across Scotland. These would be centres of Norman civilisation in a largely Celtic country, and would be established in such a way as to encourage the development of trade within their area. These new towns were to be known as Burghs. In France Bastides were established for much the same reason.

When a site had been selected for a new town the King’s surveyors would lay out an area for the town’s market. Each merchant who came to the town was granted a plot of land [usually rent free for the first few years] bordering on the marketplace. These plots were known as feus or rigs. Each feus in a burgh was the same size, though the size varied between burghs. In Forres each feus was 24 feet 10 inches wide and 429 feet deep. The layout of the feus in Lanark can still be easily seen between the north side of Lanark High Street [the former market place] and North Vennel, a lane which runs behind the feus. A motte and bailey castle was also constructed at the bottom of Castlegate.

[edit] Lanark Lanimers

This historic background forms the basis for the Lanimer celebrations, which take place each year for one week in June. Local primary schoolchildren elect a Lanimer Queen and court; and a Lord Cornet is chosen from local businessmen. On the Monday night the Walking of the Marches takes place, when townspeople turn out to walk around half the town boundary, inspecting the border-stones. The other half of the boundary is inspected on the Wednesday night by many local riders who participate in the Riding of the Marches. On the Thursday morning, schools and other organisations parade before the Lanimer Queen in fancy dress, accompanied by pipe bands. The best floats win prizes, and after the parade the crowning of the Queen takes place. The Queen holds a reception party in the town's Memorial Hall on the Thursday and Friday nights, where the children perform songs and dances, and earn themselves a disco at the end of the night

[edit] Railway station

The town is served by Lanark railway station which provides has a half hourly First Scotrail train service on the Argyle line to Glasgow Central Low Level.

See main article, Lanark railway station.

[edit] Music

Lanark has three pipe bands. All three bands compete in competitions run by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. Vale of Clyde Pipe Band competes in grade 4b and Lanark and District Pipe Band contains two units - one competing in grade 4b and one in grade 3b.

There is also the 'Music in Lanark' programme which began in 2000 with the aim of bringing a variety of the highest quality live music to the town. In the first five years there has been three classical concerts, one jazz concert and one traditional (Scottish) music concert. The programme continues to grow.

[edit] Notable Lanarkians

Lanark's local hero William Wallace "first drew sword to free his native land" in Lanark in 1297, when he killed the English sheriff Haselrig. A statue of Wallace stands at St Nicholas' Church at the foot of the High Street, and a plaque commemorates his exploits. A public house bears the name of the "Wallace Cave".

George Gray, born in Lanark in the 1620s, was a POW from the Battle of Dunbar (1650), Durham Cathedral survivor, and New World refugee upon arrival to Berwick, Maine.

Lanark has produced the rallying family of Jimmy, Alistair and Colin McRae.

Scotland goalkeeper and former Glasgow Celtic goalkeeper, Robert (Rab) Douglas hails from Lanark.

[edit] Points of interest

Visitors to the town can visit the nearby World Heritage Site of New Lanark, close to the spectacular Falls of Clyde, the Corehouse estate and the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Corehouse Nature Reserve. A large boating lake, Lanark Loch, adjoins a golf course and a racecourse, the latter offering pony-trekking activities. The town's Castlebank Park lies near the former site of Lanark Castle, and allows access to the River Clyde and the Clyde Walkway.

An ornate gas lamp, known as the 'Provost's Lamp' stands at the bottom of the high street. The lamp used to be placed outside the home of whoever was Provost of Lanark at the time [see photograph below].

In the 1840s there was ill feeling between Deacon McDonald of Castlegate and a Miss Inglis who lived just across Castlegate in Vere House. One day, Deacon MacDonald’s dog was poisoned and he suspected that it was Miss Inglis who had done the evil deed. Deacon McDonald chose an effective form of revenge. He commissioned a local stonemason to cut a life sized stone replica of the dead dog and paint it, then place it on a skewputt on the Deacons roof, with its head tilted reprovingly towards the house of Miss Inglis. The reason for the statue was soon known throughout the town. The statue, also known as the Girnin Dog, can be seen in Castlegate [see photograph below].

One of the churches in the town bears the name of St Kentigern (perhaps better known as St Mungo), who set up many medieval churches in the Scottish Lowlands, including Glasgow, and died in c612 AD.

The town's cemetery stands on the site of the old St Kentigern's kirk, and includes many Covenanter graves.

St. Nicolas' Parish Church [see photograph below] stands at the bottom of the high street. The church bell is believed to date from 1130, and may be one of the oldest church bells in the world. It was recast in 1659 and 1983.

Lanark used to have a racecourse and the 'Lanark Silver Bell' is thought to be one of the oldest racing trophies in Europe.

[edit] References

Building the Royal Burghs by John Barrett and David Iredale. Published in The Scots Magazine. Volume 142, Number 1. January 1995. pp 10 – 22.

Historical Tours in the Clyde Valley. Published by the Clyde Valley Tourist Association and the Lanark & District Archaeological Association. Printed by Robert MacLehose and Company Limited, Renfrew, Scotland. 1982.