History of Cambuslang
aspect of history
The History of Cambuslang is explained to a great deal by its geography. Now in South Lanarkshire, the town of Cambuslang is an ancient part of Scotland where Iron Age remains (at Dechmont Hill) loom over 21st century housing developments. It has been very prosperous over time, depending first upon its agricultural land, (supplying food, then wool, then linen) then the mineral resources under its soil (limestone and coal, and, to some extent, iron).
History
Etymology
Reverend Doctor James Meek, minister in Cambuslang from 1772 until 1810 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1795, wrote in the First Statistical Account of Scotland (1792):
"Cameos, now changed into Camus or Cambus in the Gaelic language, signifies a crooked torrent or rivulet; and LAN or Launse, now changed into Lang, was the name of a saint famous as the founder of many monasteries".
His follower and son-in-law, Rev Dr John Robertson, assistant to, then Minister of Cambuslang from 1797 until 1843, suggested in the Second Statistical Account of Scotland (1845):
"Cam, in the British and Celtic, transformed by the Scoto-Saxons (sic) into cambus, signifies bending or bowed- usg or uisg means water- and glan, which in composition becomes LAN – denotes a bank or bank of water. Thus Cambuslang appears to signify the water with the bending bank. But whether the camb or cambus is to be sought for in the bending banks of the rivulet which passes the church or in the magnificent sweep of the Clyde, as it winds round the northern end of the parish, it is impossible to say."
However, Iain Mac an Tàilleir writes in his collection of placenames in Scotland (2003):
Cambuslang (Lanark). "River bend of ships", from Camas Long. This was the furthest point up the Clyde navigable by large vessels.
Origins
The Parish of Cambuslang in the Barony of Drumsargard – whose castle ruins can be discerned to the south-east of Hallside – can be traced back to the time of King Alexander II of Scotland (1214–49) when it belonged to Walter Olifard, Justiciar of Lothian.
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