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Lanark
Historic county
Country	Scotland
County town	Lanark (historic) Hamilton (modern)
Area
• Total	879 sq mi (2,277 km2)
	Ranked 11th of 34
Chapman code	LKS

Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Lannraig, Scots: Lanrikshire) is a historic county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.

Historically, Lanarkshire was the most populous county in Scotland and, in earlier times, had considerably greater boundaries, including neighbouring Renfrewshire until 1402.^[1] In modern times, it is bounded to the north by Stirlingshire and a detached portion of Dunbartonshire, to the northeast by Stirlingshire, West Lothian, to the east by Peeblesshire, to the southeast and south by Dumfriesshire, to the southwest by Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire and to the west by Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire.^[2]

Lanarkshire was historically divided between two administrative areas. In the mid-18th century it was divided again into three wards: the upper, middle and lower wards with their administrative centres at Lanark, Hamilton and Glasgow, respectively, and remained this way until the Local Government Act of 1889. Other significant settlements include Coatbridge, East Kilbride, Motherwell, Airdrie, Blantyre, Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Wishaw and Carluke.^[3]

In 1975, the county council was abolished and the area absorbed into the larger Strathclyde region, which itself was divided into new Council Areas in 1996. The old area of Lanarkshire is now occupied by the council areas of:

• 
  East Dunbartonshire (1996–present)


• 
  Glasgow City Council (1996–present)


• 
  North Lanarkshire (1996–present)


• 
  South Lanarkshire (1996–present)

North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire have a joint board for valuation and electoral registration. There is also a joint health board, which does not cover Rutherglen and the surrounding area in South Lanarkshire. Without the northern portion of North Lanarkshire, this is also a Lieutenancy area.

Coat of arms

Lanarkshire's arms, as seen on the Great Western Bridge in Glasgow.

Lanarkshire was granted a coat of arms by the Lord Lyon on 24 December 1886. The arms is: Party per chevron gules and argent, two cinquefoils pierced in chief ermine, and in base a man's heart counter-changed. The cinquefoils come from the arms of the Clan Hamilton, and the heart from the arms of the Clan Douglas, the two main local families. The crest is a demi-eagle displayed with two heads, sable beaked gules. The motto is VIGILANTIA.^[4]

Mining industry

From the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century Lanarkshire profited from its rich seams of coal in places such as Glenboig.^[2] As the coal industry developed around Glasgow in the 1700s the price of coal to the city rose under the control of a cartel of coal owners.^[5] The solution was to carve out a canal to take advantage of the good (and uncontrolled) coal deposits of the Monklands area. By 1793, the Monklands canal was completed and the Lanarkshire coal industry thrived.^[6] The resulting boom lasted for over 100 years but reached its peak by the second decade of the twentieth century and even two world wars failed to halt the contraction. Output in the county continued to fall and the National Coal Board concentrated investment in Ayrshire, Fife and the Lothians. By 1970 there were only four collieries left in Lanarkshire and the closure of Cardowan in 1983 brought the long decline to an end.^[7]

Events

Lanarkshire hosted the International Children's Games in August 2011.^[8] A total of 1,300 competitors and coaches, along with administrators and delegates, representing 77 cities from 33 countries worldwide attended.

Civil parishes

Map of Lanarkshire in the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, 1868

Rivers

• North Medwin River


• South Medwin River


• River Clyde


• River Avon


• South Calder Water

Maps

Digitised historic and modern maps of Lanarkshire are available from National Library of Scotland including:

• 
  Glasgow and the county of Lanark manuscript map drawn by Scottish cartographer Timothy Pont sometime between 1583 and 1596


• 
  The nether ward of Clyds-dail and Glasco from the Blaeu Atlas of Scotland by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu published in 1654


• 
  A mape of the west of Scotland containing Clydsdail, Nithsdail, Ranfrew, Shyre of Ayre, & Galloway manuscript map drawn by the Scottish surveyor and map maker John Adair in about 1685


• 
  Map of the town of Glasgow & country seven miles around by Scottish cartographer Thomas Richardson published in 1795


• 
  Ainslie's Map of the Southern Part of Scotland by Scottish cartographer John Ainslie published in 1821


• 
  North and south of Lanarkshire from John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland published in 1882

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lanarkshire.

Coordinates: 55°35′N 3°50′W / 55.583°N 3.833°W / 55.583; -3.833