LANARK, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and county town of Lanarkshire, Scotland, standing on high ground about half a mile from the right bank of the Clyde, 31 m. S.E. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 6440. It is a favourite holiday resort, being the point from which the falls of the Clyde are usually visited. The principal buildings are the town hall, the county buildings, the assembly rooms, occupying the site of an old Franciscan monastery, three hospitals, a convalescent home, the Smyllum orphanage and the Queen Victoria Jubilee fountain. The industries include cotton-spinning, weaving, nail-making and oilworks, and there are frequent markets for cattle and sheep. Lanark is a place of considerable antiquity. Kenneth II. held a parliament here in 978, and it was sometimes the residence of the Scottish kings, one of whom, William the Lion (d. 1214), granted it a charter. Several of the earlier exploits of William Wallace were achieved in the neighbourhood. He burned the town and slew the English sheriff William Hezelrig. About 1 m. N.W. are Cartland Craigs, where Mouse Water runs through a precipitous red sandstone ravine, the sides of which are about 400 ft. high. The stream is crossed by a bridge of single span, supposed to be Roman, and by a three-arched bridge, designed by Thomas Telford and erected in 1823. On the right bank, near this bridge, is the cave in which Wallace concealed himself after killing Hezelrig and which still bears his name. Lanark was the centre of much activity in the days of the Covenanters. William Lithgow (1582-1645), the traveller, William Smellie (1697-1763), the obstetrician and Gavin Hamilton (1730-1797), the painter, were born at Lanark. The town is one of the Falkirk district group of parliamentary burghs, the other constituents being Airdrie, Hamilton, Falkirk and Linlithgow.
New Lanark (pop. 795), 1 m. S., is famous in connexion with the socialist experiments of Robert Owen. The village was founded by David Dale (1739-1806) in 1785, with the support of Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning-frame, who thought the spot might be made the Manchester of Scotland. In ten years four cotton mills were running, employing nearly 1400 hands. They were sold in 1799 to a Manchester company, who appointed Owen manager. In the same year he married Dale’s daughter. For many years the mills were successfully conducted, but friction ultimately arose and Owen retired in 1828. The mills, however, are still carried on.
There are several interesting places near Lanark. Braxfield, on the Clyde, gave the title of Lord Braxfield to Robert Macqueen (1722-1799), who was born in the mansion and acquired on the bench the character of the Scottish Jeffreys. Robert Baillie, the patriot who was executed for conscience’ sake (1684), belonged to Jerviswood, an estate on the Mouse. Lee House, the home of the Lockharts, is 3 m. N.W. The old castle was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. It contains some fine tapestry and portraits, and the Lee Penny—familiar to readers of Sir Walter Scott’s Talisman—which was brought from Palestine in the 14th century by the Crusading knight, Sir Simon Lockhart. It is described as a cornelian encased in a silver coin. Craignethan Castle on the Nethan, a left-hand tributary joining the Clyde at Crossford, is said to be the original of the “Tillietudiem” of Scott’s Old Mortality.
LANARKSHIRE, a south-western county of Scotland, bounded N. by the shires of Dumbarton and Stirling, E. by Linlithgowshire, Mid-Lothian and Peeblesshire, S. by Dumfriesshire and W. by the counties of Ayr, Renfrew and Dumbarton. Its area is 879 sq. m. (562,821 acres). It may be described as embracing the valley of the Clyde; and, in addition to the gradual descent from the high land in the south, it is also characterized by a gentle slope towards both banks of the river. The shire is divided into three wards, the Upper, comprising all the southern section, or more than half the whole area (over 330,000 acres); the Middle, with Hamilton for its chief town, covering fully 190,000 acres; and the Lower, occupying the northern area of about 40,000 acres. The surface falls gradually from the uplands in the south to the Firth of Clyde. The highest hills are nearly all on or close to the borders of Peeblesshire and Dumfriesshire, and include Culter Fell (2454 ft.) and Lowther Hill (2377). The loftiest heights exclusively belonging to Lanarkshire are Green Lowther (2403), Tinto (2335), Ballencleuch Law (2267), Rodger Law (2257), Dun Law (2216), Shiel Dod (2190), Dungrain Law (2186) and Comb Law (2107). The principal rivers are the Clyde and its head waters and affluents (on the right, the Medwin, Mouse, South Calder, North Calder and Kelvin; on the left, the Douglas, Nethan, Avon, Rotten Calder and Cart). There are no lochs of considerable size, the few sheets of water in the north—Woodend Reservoir, Bishop Loch, Hogganfield Loch, Woodend Loch, Lochend Loch—mainly feeding the Monkland and the Forth and Clyde Canals. The most famous natural features are the Falls of Clyde at Bonnington, Corra, Dundaff and Stonebyres.
Geology.—The southern upland portion is built up of Silurian and Ordovician rocks; the northern lower-lying tracts are formed of Carboniferous and Old Red Sandstone rocks. Ordovician strata cross the county from S.W. to N.E. in a belt 5-7 m. in breadth which is brought up by a fault against the Old Red and the Silurian on the northern side. This fault runs by Lamington, Roberton and Crawfordjohn. The Ordovician rocks lie in a synclinal fold with beds of Caradoc age in the centre flanked by graptolitic shales, grits and conglomerates, including among the last-named the local “Haggis-rock”; the well-known lead mines of Leadhills are worked in these formations. Silurian shales and sandstones, &c., extend south of the Ordovician belt to the county boundary; and again, on the northern side of the Ordovician belt two small tracts appear through the Old Red Sandstone on the crests of anticlinal folds. The Old Red Sandstone covers an irregular tract north of the Ordovician belt; a lower division consisting of sandstone, conglomerates and mud-stones is the most extensively developed; above this is found a series of contemporaneous porphyrites and melaphyres, conformable upon the lower division in the west of the county but are not so in the east. An upper series of sandstones and grits is seen for a short distance west of Lamington. Lanark stands on the Old Red Sandstone and the Falls of Clyde occur in the same rocks. Economically the most important geological feature is the coal basin of the Glasgow district. The axis of this basin lies in a N.E.-S.W. direction; in the central part, including Glasgow, Airdrie, Motherwell, Wishaw, Carluke, lie the coal-measures, consisting of sandstones, shales, marls and fireclays with seams of coal and ironstone. There are eleven beds of workable coal, the more important seams being the Ell, Main, Splint, Pyotshaw and Virtuewell. Underlying the coal-measures is the Millstone Grit seen on the northern side between Glenboig and Hogganfield—here the fireclays of Garnkirk, Gartcosh and Glenboig are worked—and on the south and south-east of the coal-measures, but not on the western side, because it is there cut out by a fault. Beneath the last-named formation comes the Carboniferous Limestone series with thin coals and ironstones, and again beneath this is the Calciferous Sandstone series which in the south-east consists of sandstones, shales, &c., but in the west the greater part of the series is composed of interbedded volcanic rocks—porphyrites and melaphyres. It will be observed that in general the younger formations lie nearer the centre of the basin and the older ones crop out around them. Besides the volcanic rocks mentioned there are intrusive basalts in the Carboniferous rocks like that in the neighbourhood of Shotts, and the smaller masses at Hogganfield near Glasgow and elsewhere. Volcanic necks are found in the Carluke and Kilcadzow districts, marking the vents of former volcanoes and several dikes of Tertiary age traverse the older rocks. An intrusion of pink felsite in early Old Red times has been the cause of Tinto Hill. Evidences of the Glacial period are abundant in the form of kames and other deposits of gravel, sand and boulder clay. The ice in flowing northward and southward from the higher ground took an easterly direction when it reached the lower ground. In the lower reaches of the Clyde the remains of old beaches at 25, 50 and 100 ft. above the present sea-level are to be observed.
Climate and Agriculture.—The rainfall averages 42 in. annually, being higher in the hill country and lower towards the north. The temperature for the year averages 48° F., for January 38° and for July 59°. The area under grain has shown a downward tendency since 1880. Oats is the principal crop, but barley and wheat are also grown. Potatoes and turnips are raised on a large scale. In the Lower Ward market-gardening has increased considerably, and the quantity of vegetables, grapes and tomatoes reared under glass has reached great proportions. An ancient industry in the vale of the Clyde for many miles below Lanark is the cultivation of fruit, several of the orchards being said to date from the time of Bede. The apples and pears are of good repute. There has been a remarkable extension in the culture of strawberries, hundreds of acres being laid down in beds. The sheep walks in the upper and middle wards are heavily stocked and the herds of cattle are extensive, the favoured breeds being Ayrshire and a cross between this and “improved Lanark.” Dairy-farming flourishes, the cheeses of Carnwath and Lesmahagow being in steady demand. Clydesdale draught-horses are of high class. They are supposed to have been bred from Flanders horses imported early in the 18th century by the 5th duke of Hamilton. Most of the horses are kept for agricultural work, but a considerable number of unbroken horses and mares are maintained for stock. Pigs are numerous, being extensively reared by the miners. The largest farms are situated in the Upper Ward, but the general holding runs from 50 to 100 acres. More than 21,000 acres are under wood.
Other Industries.—The leading industries are those in connexion with the rich and extensive coal and iron field to the east and southeast of Glasgow; the shipbuilding at Govan and Partick and in Glasgow harbour; the textiles at Airdrie, Blantyre, Hamilton, Lanark, New Lanark, Rutherglen and Glasgow; engineering at Cambuslang, Carluke, Coatbridge, Kinning Park, Motherwell and Wishaw, and the varied and flourishing manufactures centred in and around Glasgow.
Communications.—In the north of the county, where population is most dense and the mineral field exceptionally rich, railway facilities are highly developed, there being for 10 or 12 m. around Glasgow quite a network of lines. The Caledonian Railway Company’s main line to the south runs through the whole length of the shire, sending off branches at several points, especially at Carstairs Junction. The North British Railway Company serves various towns in the lower and middle wards and its lines to Edinburgh cross the northwestern corner and the north of the county. Only in the immediate neighbourhood of Glasgow does the Glasgow and South Western system compete for Lanarkshire traffic, though it combines with the Caledonian to work the Mid-Lanarkshire and Ayrshire railway. The Monkland Canal in the far north and the Forth and Clyde Canal in the north and north-west carry a considerable amount of goods, and before the days of railways afforded one of the principal means of communication between east and west.