Lanark Hookups: Lanark Women Want to Meet

Lanark's High Street has fourteen ways to slip away

Lanark has fourteen closes, the narrow vennels that run off the High Street, and one good rule for a first meeting: pick somewhere with an obvious landmark. At the bottom of the High Street an ornate gas lamp, known as the provost's lamp, does the job nicely. Say you'll be by the lamp and neither of you needs directions.

This is a market town of about 9,000 people, where the Mouse Water joins the Clyde. It was a royal burgh for centuries, right up to 1975, and the county town of Lanarkshire before Hamilton took the title. The shops still serve the farms and villages round about, so the High Street sees faces from outside town too.

Daytime suits a first meeting here. Castlebank Park, near the old castle site, opens onto the Clyde and the Clyde Walkway, and Lanark Loch has a boating lake next to the golf club. If the weather turns, Lanark Museum in West Port is a dry, public place to start. If it goes well, the World Heritage Site at New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde make a proper second date.

Meet halfway: Carluke, Hamilton or the train to Glasgow

Carluke is the nearest town, under five miles away: close enough to be convenient, far enough that your neighbours won't be at the next table. Strathaven is about eleven and Hamilton nearly twelve, so there's usually a halfway point that suits you both. The railway station and bus interchange both have frequent services to Glasgow, which helps when neither of you fancies driving home after a drink.

Choose somewhere public, give a friend the plan and have your own lift home sorted before you go. The hookup safety tips cover the rest, and the locations page shows which towns around Lanark have a page of their own.