Carluke
Carluke
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Carluke

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Carluke

Carluke (/kɑːrˈlk/; Scottish Gaelic: Cathair MoLuaig) is a town that lies in the heart of the Lanarkshire countryside in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, 4+34 miles (7.5 kilometres) northwest of Lanark and 4+14 mi (7 km) southeast of Wishaw.

Carluke is largely a commuter town, with a variety of small stores and supermarkets available at its centre. The surrounding villages of Braidwood, Forth, Kilncadzow, and Law are supported by the various shops and services available in Carluke.

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.

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 position 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, and 'Luke' is more likely to derive from the commonly revered pre-Christian deity Lugus.

The town was chartered to Captain Walter Lockhart of Kirkton and spouse as a Burgh of Barony in 1662. Carluke expanded during the industrial age, with work involving corn milling, cotton weaving, coal mining and the manufacture of bricks, glass, confectionery and jam.

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