 The Quadrant Shopping Centre, Coatbridge |
Monklands is a traditional name for the area around Airdrie and Coatbridge and dates back to a grant of lands in the area to the monks of the Cistercian Abbey at Newbattle in East Lothian in 1162. It was also the name of a district council area which existed from 1975 to 1996. It was one of 19 district councils that delivered a range of local level services within the wider area of Strathclyde Region, which over this period was one of the 12 regions into which Scotland was divided.
Monklands was one of the five district council areas within the Lanark sub-region of Strathclyde, and its area had previously formed a small part of the traditional county of Lanarkshire. The result was a small district that included Airdrie and Coatbridge and the surrounding area. It was bordered by the districts of Cumbernauld & Kilsyth, Strathkelvin, Motherwell and City of Glasgow in Strathclyde; the West Lothian District in Lothian; and the Falkirk District in Central Region.
When regions and districts disappeared from the scene in a major reorganisation of Scottish local government in 1996, the district council area of Monklands became part of the unitary council area of North Lanarkshire, one of the 32 unitary council areas into which Scotland has since been divided.
