Tarbrax

Tarbrax (Scottish Gaelic: "An Tòrr Breac" - meaning "the speckled tor") is a small village in the Parish of Carnwath, County of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is at the end of a dead end road off the A70 road between Edinburgh and Carnwath.

Tarbrax is 1000 feet above sea level on the edge of the Pentland Hills. Nearby villages include Auchengray and Woolfords.

Notable people from Tarbrax include writer Neil Cross

History

Tarbrax was built around a shale mine as housing for the miners beginning in the middle of the 19th Century. There is a large bing (spent shale spoil heap) in the village. The name is derived from the Lawhead Tarbrax estate within which it was built, which was then owned by David Souter Robertson, a founder of modern Accountancy. This estate was originally based around Tarbrax Castle, a seat of the Somervilles, though by 1649 it had passed to the Lockharts, including George Lockhart of Tarbrax. Nothing remains to be seen of the castle today. The village was a base for American GIs during the Second World War.