Carluke (; ) is a town that lies in the heart of the Lanarkshire countryside in South Lanarkshire,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, northwest of

Lanark Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...

and southeast of Wishaw. Carluke is largely a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

, with a variety of small stores and supermarkets available at its centre. The surrounding villages of Braidwood, Forth, Kilncadzow, and

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

are supported by the various shops and services available in Carluke.

Carluke today

Carluke is Clydesdale's largest town with a population of 13,810. It sits on a high plateau overlooking the River Clyde, right in the heart of Lanarkshire's fruit growing area. It has a locally important shopping centre and it has seen a recent boom in house building thanks to its direct train link with Glasgow. The town centre was redesigned to create an attractive shopping environment, and work finished in 2006. Thanks to its proximity to Clydesdale's major fruit growers, one of Carluke's biggest employers is the jam company R&W Scott. Memorials to two of Carluke's most famous sons were completed in 2006 as part of the town's Streetscape Project, regenerating the centre of the town. On the paving at the bottom of the High Street, a design of a compass etched with arrows pointing to places relevant to Carluke such as Tinto and Carluke, New Zealand, has been created in honour of the noted surveyor and cartographer Major General William Roy. Roy's birthplace at Miltonhead is marked with a small memorial plaque (near Miltonhead Farm at the west end of Milton road). Doctor Daniel Reid Rankin is remembered by a plaque in Rankin Square with etchings of fossils carved into the granite.

History

In a charter by Robert I, dated 1315, Carluke is written "Carneluk"; at different periods it appears as Carlowck, Carlowk, Carluk, Carlook, Carlouk and Carluke. Car or Caer tells us that it is a height or strong positionHicks, Davyth A.
''Language, History and Onomastics in Medieval Cumbria (an analysis of the generative usage of the cumbric habitative generics cair and tref)''
(PDF), pg. 96-97 and Luke suggests that it may be dedicated to the saint of that name, or the early Christian saint Moluag (or Luag), however there is evidence that the earliest church was dedicated to

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

, and 'Luke' is more likely to derive from the commonly revered pre-Christian deity Lugus.Hicks, Davyth A.
''Language, History and Onomastics in Medieval Cumbria (an analysis of the generative usage of the cumbric habitative generics cair and tref)''
(PDF), pg. 169 The town was chartered to Captain Walter Lockhart of Kirkton and spouse as a Burgh of Barony in 1662. Carluke expanded during through the industrial age, with work involving corn milling, cotton weaving,

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

and the manufacture of

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two bro ...

and jam.

Present day

Today Carluke's population stands at nearly 14,000 and has 6 primary schools. Carluke Streetscape, a £2.35M town-centre redevelopment project funded by South Lanarkshire Council, was completed in April 2006. As a result, after many years of pedestrianisation, unidirectional vehicular traffic is now permitted along the town's High Street and Hamilton Street outwith business hours. Carluke High School was also redeveloped to make it bigger and more up to date in 2008. In 2010 a £1.1M indoor soft play and cafe "The Bubbles Factory" was built and opened in Hamilton Street, where the "old smiddy" was sited; in 2012 it was voted "The Best Soft Play in the UK". In 2011, a new

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

store between Lanark Road and Shieldhill Road was constructed and opened.

Education

The town currently has five primary schools: Carluke Primary, High Mill Primary, Kirkton Primary, Crawforddyke Primary, and St Athanasius Primary; all of which have been recently rebuilt or refurbished. Secondary education is provided by Carluke High School, which also serves Law village, Braidwood and Forth. Carluke High School has also been rebuilt on its current site and Kirkton Primary, the last of the schools to be rebuilt, was completed in 2014. Braidwood Primary is a school near Carluke. Carluke is also home to a state funded

Special School Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual d ...

, Victoria Park. The school serves the whole of South Lanarkshire Council and provides education for primary and secondary pupils aged 3 to 18 with special educational needs.

Sport

Carluke is home to West of Scotland Football League side Carluke Rovers F.C. who play at the John Cumming Stadium, the field hockey club Clydeside and the Carluke Cobras, one of the top three

flag football Flag football is a variant of gridiron football (American football or Canadian football depending on location) where, instead of Tackle (football move)#Gridiron football, tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or ...

teams in the UK. There are also several men's amateur football sides in the town Carluke Thistle & Carluke FC 35's. At youth level there is also Milton Rovers, Carluke United & Carluke Boys Club. It was the home of one of the most successful Scottish

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

teams The Clydesdale Colts . (Nationale Finalists 3 times and Winners once), The Colts were formed by Lex Carson and Harvey Gordon. Their home games were played at Loch Park Stadium. Carluke's

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

team is Carluke Tigers. John Cumming Stadium facilities includes a 400-metre all-weather athletics track and an 11-a-side 3G synthetic football pitch. Situated on the same site, Carluke Leisure Centre facilities include a gym, swimming pool, health suite, creche and coffee shop. Carluke has two lawn bowls clubs, Castlehill Bowling club and Carluke Bowling Club. A concrete outdoor

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

is located near Crawforddyke primary school, features include quarter pipes, manual pad and bowled section.

Transport

Carluke is situated from Junction 8 of the M74, from Junction 6 of the M8 and from the M80 at Cumbernauld, and is the meeting place of the A73 and A721 roads. The town also benefits from frequent direct rail services to

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and a recently enhanced bi-hourly service to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

(Sundays excepted) from Carluke railway station, less than a 10-minute walk from the town centre. There is a circular town bus route that connects the town centre with several local housing schemes. There are also regular bus services to Lanark, Wishaw, Motherwell, Hamilton and Glasgow as well as an hourly express coach service to Glasgow that runs non-stop from the outskirts of Motherwell via the M74, M73 and M8 motorways.

Notable people

The town was home to three recipients of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

: * William Angus * Thomas Caldwell * Donald Cameron It is also the birthplace of: *Major Thomas Weir, covenanting soldier and alleged warlock *Major General William Roy, widely regarded as the founding father of the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

* Joe Dodds, a left-sided defender who played for Celtic, Cowdenbeath, Queen of the South and the Scotland national team * Dougie Arnott, the former

striker, currently resides in the town. * Tom Steele (stuntman). * John Jackson, racing driver * John Cumming, footballer for Heart of Midlothian FC and the Scotland national team. The sports facility in the town is named after him. * David Turnbull, footballer for Celtic and the Scotland national team. * Angus Grossart, founder, chairman and executive director of Edinburgh-based merchant bank Noble Grossart.

References

External links

Images of Carluke on Flickr.com
{{Authority control Towns in South Lanarkshire Parishes in Lanarkshire