If you are driving from England to Scotland and find yourself on the M74 heading north, you will pass through the Parish of Lesmahagow. It won't seem like much... After the more dramatic hills of the Southern Uplands, the fields of sheep and flat hills seen from the motorway may seem rather unspectacular. But, like all places the area has a character and history all of its own.

Lesmahagow Parish and the Nethan Valley: Geography and History

The Parish of Lesmahagow lies west of the town of Lanark in South Lanarkshire, Central Scotland. It covers 65 square miles of land bounded by the Cander Water, the Poniel, the River Clyde and the Kype Water. It is roughly 10 miles long and 9 miles from east to west.

Most of the land is 500 feet above sea level, having its lowest point at the Clyde Valley and highest at Nutberry Hill at 1712 feet tall. The river Nethan flows through the parish from its source by Nutberry Hill to its confluence with the River Clyde at Crossford.

Geologically, the Nethan is said to mark the split between red sandstone to the north from carboniferous rock to the south.

The Nethan valley has been occupied since pre-historic times. Pottery and other remains dating back to the late Stone Age has been found around the village of Lesmahagow. ¹ There was also Roman activity in the area and the route of a Roman road passes near the village of Blackwood.

In Mediaeval times, Benedictine monks travelled north from Kelso Abbey and settled at the site of the village of Lesmahagow itself. They originally named the settlement “the Ecclesia of St Mahago” It has been suggested ² that the monks may have carried some relic of St Mahago (e.g. one his bones) with them on their journey north. Little is known of the saint, also called St Malo and St Machute.

Because of their work, King David I granted “the lands of Lesmahag” to the monks of Kelso Abbey in 1144. An abbey was built on the flat land by the River Nethan in what is now the village of Lesmahagow next to the site of the modern Church of Scotland

In 1336 Edward II’s brother burned the abbey beacuase of the monks support of William Wallace,a native of Lanark,³ and Robert the Bruce in the wars with the English. It was again burned during the Reformation.

The large scale mining of coal seams at Coalburn led to the building of railways in the mid-19th and early 20th Centuries. From here the coal was transported north to the steel works of Motherwell and the shipyards and docks of Glasgow and beyond.

With the decay of large-scale industry in Central Scotland in the latter part of the 20th Century, there was less need for coal and as a result, redundancies and the closure of the railways followed. Now, a network of old railway lines, rows of miners' houses and unemployment cover the parish, the remnants of the days when mining was the major industry.

Nowadays, the area has been slightly rejuvanated by suburban housing schemes. Being located so close the M74 allows many people to commute to the nearby town of Hamilton and also slightly further to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Major settlements

The following is a list of the main villages along the course of the River Nethan from its source:

The following are on the banks of the River Clyde:

Crossford is at the confluence of the rivers Nethan and Clyde.

There are countless small hamlets and farms dotted over the Parish. The most notable perhaps being Tillietudlem situated a mile from Craignethan Castle built in 1532 by Sir James Hamilton who rebuilt the castles at Edinburgh and Stirling for James V.

The Black Hill Viewpoint by Auchenheath gives a stunning view of the parish as well as views of Glasgow and the first mountains of the Highlands to the north as well as the great mass of the Tinto hills to the south.

Lesmahagow: the village

The village of Lesmahagow itself is rather picturesque and home to around 2000 people. The remains of the old Abbey can be seen, but are little more than the low outlines of ruined walls. There are two large churches on Abbeygreen, the main street. Historically confined to the sheltered base and western slope of the valley, a large percentage of the population now stay in a modern housing scheme “up the Cut” [a steep winding road up the eastern side].

Lesmahagow: A brief etymology

The name is mostly said to be a corruption of the Benedictine monks original name: "Ecclesia of St Mahago", perhaps at one point abbreviated in writing to Les St. Mahago and, hence, Lesmahagow.