📌 Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire
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The council probably weren’t intending to build Scotland’s ugliest settlement when they built Cumbernauld as a New Town in 1955, but that does seem to be the result. On one level it seems to have thrived: despite being only decades old, the town is already North Lanarkshire’s largest. From a visitor’s perspective, however, it’s hideous: seemingly endless acres of dual carriageways, car parks and claustrophobic shopping centres. And there’s a conundrum: what to display in the town museum? There are a few information boards setting out the groundbreaking “vision” of Cumbernauld, lots of aerial photographs and a little about the area’s history before concrete covered it. But the suspiciously empty feel of the museum gives the game away: there’s not much history to Cumbernauld New Town yet, even if a few people would quite like Cumbernauld New Town to be history…
🌍 Location
📌 Cumbernauld Library, inside shopping mall, Allander Walk, Cumbernauld town centre
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NS 759744
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.946818,-3.989085
🚌 Bus to Cumbernauld | 🚆 Cumbernauld (0.5 mi)
🚗 Shopping mall car parks
📝 Key info
⌚ Monday to Saturday
🎫 Free
