High Blantyre
South Lanarkshire

High Blantyre (once Kirkton of Blantyre) is the southwestern and oldest section of the town of Blantyre in South Lanarkshire, located adjacent to the A725 road. There is evidence of Bronze-Age settlement, then an Augustinian Priory established c.1296 as a daughter of Jedburgh Abbey which provided a safe place of refuge when the Scottish Borders were subject to the turmoil of English invasions. High Blantyre was chartered as a burgh of barony in 1598. Blantyre Old Parish Church can still be found here. It grew markedly in association with coal-mining in the late 19th Century. Disaster struck on the 22nd October 1877 when an underground explosion killed 207 miners in the High Blantyre Pit complex.

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