Biggar
South Lanarkshire

Corn Exchange, Biggar
©2011 Gazetteer for Scotland

A market town and commercial centre in South Lanarkshire, Biggar has been a burgh since 1451 and lies 14 miles (22 km) southeast of Lanark at the site of the Battle of Biggar (1297) at which William Wallace and Sir Walter Newbigging defeated Edward of England. Biggar developed in association with cattle markets and textile and brewing industries. Today its industries include engineering and the distribution of fine foods.

The Church of St Mary (1546), one of the last pre-Reformation churches in Scotland, stands on the site of the earlier church of St Nicholas. In its graveyard are buried the ancestors of the politician William Gladstone. Notable buildings include the Gladstone Court Museum, the Greenhill Covenanters' House (17th-century), the Moat Park Heritage Centre, the Gasworks Museum, the Albion Motor Museum and the Victorian Puppet Theatre which still offers performances.

John Brown, author of Rab and his Friends, was born in Biggar in 1810 and the author Hugh MacDiarmid lived nearby at Brownsbank Cottage.

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