North Lanarkshire: Steel Towns Finding New Ground
North Lanarkshire carries the weight of Scotland's heavy industrial past more visibly than almost anywhere else. Motherwell and Wishaw grew around steelmaking — the Ravenscraig works, once the largest hot strip steel mill in western Europe, employed 13,000 people at its peak. It closed in 1992. The site sat derelict for over a decade before regeneration began, and the process continues. Coatbridge, another major town, was known as the "Iron Burgh" for its foundries. Airdrie sits adjacent, the two towns nearly merging into one continuous settlement.
Cumbernauld, designed as a new town in the 1950s to absorb Glasgow's overspill population, won architectural awards when it opened and has been voted the worst town in Scotland multiple times since. Its town centre — a brutalist megastructure spanning the A80 — is being partially demolished. Despite all of this, North Lanarkshire's population of 341,000 makes it the fourth-largest council area in Scotland. Its position in the central belt gives residents access to both Glasgow and Edinburgh within commuting distance. The M8 and M74 motorways cross the area. Employment has shifted from manufacturing to distribution, services, and public sector work. Housing is among the cheapest in the central belt, and the area functions increasingly as a residential zone for workers employed elsewhere.
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North Lanarkshire carries the weight of Scotland's heavy industrial past more visibly than almost anywhere else. Motherwell and Wishaw grew around steelmaking — the Ravenscraig works, once the largest hot strip steel mill in western Europe, employed 13,000 people at its peak. It closed in 1992. The site sat derelict for over a decade before regeneration began, and the process continues. Coatbridge, another major town, was known as the "Iron Burgh" for its foundries. Airdrie sits adjacent, the two towns nearly merging into one continuous settlement.
Cumbernauld, designed as a new town in the 1950s to absorb Glasgow's overspill population, won architectural awards when it opened and has been voted the worst town in Scotland multiple times since. Its town centre — a brutalist megastructure spanning the A80 — is being partially demolished. Despite all of this, North Lanarkshire's population of 341,000 makes it the fourth-largest council area in Scotland. Its position in the central belt gives residents access to both Glasgow and Edinburgh within commuting distance. The M8 and M74 motorways cross the area. Employment has shifted from manufacturing to distribution, services, and public sector work. Housing is among the cheapest in the central belt, and the area functions increasingly as a residential zone for workers employed elsewhere.
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