Lanark and District Archaeological Society (LADAS) is a very active amateur society operating in the Clydesdale area of Scotland. This is an area rich in history. The Society has been involved in excavations on several prehistoric and Roman sites throuhout the area. The towns in the area, Lanark and Biggar, are both long established market towns which trace their histories to the Middle Ages. The Royal Burgh of Lanark is popularly believed to have been established in 1140 by David I, whilst Biggar became a royal burgh in 1451. Lanark's most notable role in Scottish history is that it was in Lanark that William Wallace killed the English Sheriff, the catalyst for the Scottish Wars of Independence. Since that time Lanark has been the site of several local industries, most famously the mills at New Lanark, where the social policies of Robert Owen gained international recognition.
For almost 25 years LADAS has endeavoured to uncover and record the rich history
of the area, through numerous digs and other pursuits. We also have a very active lecture
and visit programme,
which allows us to appreciate the archaeology and history from throughout the world.
In this website we will
share our activities
to allow the rich heritage of Lanark and District to be appreciated.
Lanark and District Archaeological Society was founded in 1975. The first dig done by the Society was in the Castlegate carpark in Lanark. The main discoveries include the walls of a seventeenth century building and a Mediaeval bowl furnace. In 1979 the Society was involved in a dig at Lanark Castle with Historic Scotland. In the early eighties there was a dig at Jerviswood which revealed something of the plan of the old tower house built in 1513.
In the eighties the Society did a number of digs in Lanark - most notably at Tescos, where we found a number of early Mediaeval rubbish pits. Other digs which revealed similar things include the site of new buildings opposite the Castlegate Bar and the site of an old knitwear factory at the bottom of Bloomgate. We also dug inside two properties along the Bloomgate, at Daisies Coffee shop we found some Mediaeval tiles and at the other site we found a Mediaeval lock. In the same time period we also dug at the Co-op site in the High Street where we also found a Mediaeval rubbish pit. In the mid nineties we dug inside the chapel of St Nicholas, Lanark where we found the foundations of a set of pillars built in about 1560 when the church was altered.
This year's dig is the first for three years and revealed some of the foundations of a building thought to be connected to Lanark's Franciscan Friary, which was founded in the early fourteenth century by King Robert the Bruce.
You can find out more about us and our activities through the following pages: