Book on histories of mining villages

Airdrie’s former mining settlements are among those remembered in a book charting Scotland’s social and industrial history.

Scotland’s Lost Villages, by historian Dane Love, tells the stories of 40 former communities – including Arden, Avonhead, Darngavil, Longrigg, Roughrigg and Whiterigg.

The Monklands villages are among 40 charted with histories, pictures and maps, as well as “stories associated with the [ areas and] some colourful accounts of life and death in each community”.

Author Dane said: “Most were erected by mine owners to house workers – usually close to the pitheads, and maybe remote from the main centres of population.

“When the pits closed, the villages were usually abandoned soon after, the miners moving on to find work elsewhere.

“Each of these was once home to many ancestors of the county’s residents; today, little more than foundations and the war memorial survive.”

Scotland’s Lost Villages is published by Carn Publishing; it is available from www.dane-love.co.uk for £18.

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