Carmichael, a hamlet and a parish of S central Lanarkshire. The hamlet lies near the northern hase of Tinto, 2½ miles E of Sandilands station, 3½ W by N of its post-village Thankerton, and 5¼ SE of Lanark. The parish is bounded NE by Pettinain, E by Covington, S by Wiston, SW by Douglas, and NW by Lesmahagow and Lanark. Its greatest length, from E by N to W by S, is 53/8 miles; its greatest breadth, from N to S, is 4¾ miles; and its area is 11,373¾ acres, of which 59½ are water. The Clyde flows 2¾ miles along all the Lanark border down to a sharp bend a little above Bonnington Linn; and Douglas Water, down to its confluence with the Clyde at that point, follows for 33/8 miles all the boundary with Lesmahagow. Millhill Burn, running to the Clyde, and Ponfeigh Water, to the Douglas, trace the north-eastern and south-western boundaries; and Shiels, Drumalbin, and Carmichael Burns take a northerly course through the interior. The surface, sinking to less than 600 feet above sea-level along the Clyde and the Douglas, thence rises south-eastward to the Tinto Hills, attaining 1156 feet in Carmichael Hill, 884 in Whitecastle Hill, 1030 in Stone Hill, 1220 in Black Hill, 1205 in Level Hill, and, on the southern border, 1452 in Howgate Hill, 1734 in Lochlyock Hill, and 2335 in Tinto itself, at the meeting-point of Carmichael, Covington, Symington, and Wiston parishes. The rocks are mainly eruptive, largely Devonian, and partly carboniferous. Sandstone and limestone are quarried; coal is worked; and ironstone and bituminous shale are found. The soil of the arable lands is variously argillaceous, loamy, and sandy. About 4700 acres are either in tillage or in irrigated meadow, 3810 in pasture, and 735 under wood. A curious amulet, consisting of a nodule of clay ironstone, with copper handle, and with a small copper-plated casket of stained wood, bearing date 1588, but not of that period, was found at Crockbet in 1865, and is now in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. Carmichael House, 1 mile ENE of the church, is the seat of Sir Windham Chs. Jas. Carmichael Anstruther, ninth and fifth Bart. since 1694 and 1798, and twentieth in descent from the first Sir William Carmichael of that ilk (flo. 1350), whose lineal descendants held the earldom of Hyndford from 1701 to 1817. Designed on a princely plan, it was never completed beyond the two wings, with a long connecting corridor; the fine plantations around it were mostly reared from seeds selected on the Continent by the eminent diplomatist, John, third Earl of Hyndford (1701-67), a native and great benefactor of this parish. Sir Windham Anstruther (b. 1824; suc. 1869) was M. P. for S Lanarkshire from 1874 to 1880, and holds 13,624 acres in the county, valued at £9950 per annum, including £722 for minerals. The other chief proprietor is Maurice Thomson-Carmichael, Esq. (b. 1841; suc. 1875; 2125 acres, of £2058 annual value), of Eastend House, 2 miles WSW of Thankerton. Carmichael is in the presbytery of Lanark and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £290. The church, built in 1740, contains 450 sittings; and a public school, with accommodation for 91 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 83, and a grant of £86,6s. Valuation (1881) £9091,7s. Pop. (1801) 832, (1831) 956, (1861) 836, (1871) 708, (1881) 770.—Ord. Sur., sh. 23,1865.
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