LANARK, a royal burgh, parish and county town of Lanark shire, Scotland, standing on high ground about half a mile from the right bank of the Clyde. 31 m. S.E. of Glasgow by the L.M.S. railway. Pop. (1931) 6,178. It is the point from which the falls of the Clyde are usually visited. The industries include cotton spinning, hosiery manufacture and a tannery, and there are fre quent markets for cattle, horses and sheep. Kenneth II. held a parliament at Lanark in 978, and it was sometimes the residence of the Scottish kings, one of whom, William the Lion (d. 1214), granted it a charter. William Wallace, who is said to have lived here in his early days, burned the town and slew the English sheriff. About 1 m. N.W. are Cartland Craigs, where Mouse Water runs through a precipitous red sandstone ravine. The stream is crossed by a bridge of single span, supposed to be of Roman origin, and by a three-arched bridge, designed by Thomas Telford. 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 (173o-1797), the painter, were born at Lanark.
New Lanark, 1 m. S., is famous in connection with the socialist experiments of Robert Owen. The village was founded by David Dale (Owen's father-in-law) in 1785, with the support of Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning-frame.
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. It is a cornelian encased in a silver coin, which was brought from Palestine in the 14th century by a crusading knight. Craignethan Castle, a picturesque ruin on the Nethan, a tributary of the Clyde, is said to be the original of the "Tillietudlem" of Scott's Old Mortality.