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Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee is a canal branch in Lanarkshire that served the industrial heartland of nineteenth-century central Scotland. Built to transport coal, ironstone and manufactured goods from the surrounding collieries and ironworks, the branch connected to the main Monkland Canal system, which linked the industrial sites around Summerlee and Gartsherrie to the Clyde estuary. The canal was engineered to navigate the undulating terrain of the Lanarkshire coalfield, where the underlying Scottish Coal Measures Group—containing seams of coal and ironstone interspersed with mudstone, siltstone and sandstone—provided the raw materials driving regional industry.
The waterway is now a scheduled monument, protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM11340, recognising its significance as tangible evidence of Scotland's industrial heritage. Monkland Canal remains an important archaeological and historical record of the transport networks that sustained heavy industry in Lanarkshire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The surviving sections of the Gartsherrie Branch preserve information about engineering methods, logistics and the economic landscape of the region's coal and iron age.
Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM11340. View the official record →
Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee is a canal branch in Lanarkshire that served the industrial heartland of nineteenth-century central Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM11340.
Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM11340.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Monkland Canal, Coatbank Street to Paddock Street, Coatbridge (2.4 km), Monkland Canal, Netherhouse Road to Cuilhill Road (3.1 km), Monkland Canal, Paddock Street to intersection with North Calder Water (3.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Monkland Canal, Gartsherrie Branch, Summerlee stands on Scottish Coal Measures Group, bedrock that formed in the Moscovian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.