Doors Open Days South Lanarkshire
Scotland's annual Doors Open Days festival gives you free access to lots of fascinating buildings across South Lanarkshire! This year's event will be held on September 7th & 8th!
About Doors Open Days South Lanarkshire
Doors Open Days is Scotland’s largest free festival that celebrates heritage and the built environment, new and old. Every September, you can explore hundreds of fascinating buildings across Scotland for free. Some open up once a year, some just once in a lifetime.
Doors Open Days is a national event run by the Scottish Civic Trust. Information about the national programme, including event listings, can be found at www.doorsopendays.org.uk. Doors Open Days, along with Scottish Archaeology Month take place throughout Scotland and are part of European Heritage Days – an initiative which promotes a sense of community and a “common heritage” throughout the continent.
Programme Highlights:
Biggar Gasworks
Almost all of the gasworks buildings and equipment remain. You can even see some of the steam-driven machines used for gas production and distribution in action. Biggar Gasworks passed into state care soon after its doors shut. Today, it’s a lasting reminder of an industry that benefited all of Scotland’s citizens, and the only preserved gasworks left in the country.
The gasworks connected the people of Biggar with gas to lighting in the dark evenings, which caused literacy rates to soar as poorer people could read into the evening. On a visit to Biggar Gasworks, visitors can learn about the industrial network transforming coal into gas.
For Doors Open Days visit Biggar Gasworks to find out from our knowledgeable guides how the gasworks operated before it's closure in 1973, and take part in some fun family activities.
Biggar Kirk
Biggar Kirk, which dates from 1546, with 17th Century Penitent’s Stool and Pre-Reformation Tombstone in the porch from 1550’s and traces of the “jougs” outside the south door; these were metal collars by which people were once attached by way of punishment. Thirteen stained glass windows the earliest from 1870. The Kirkyard has many old and interesting stones and is the burial place of the Ancestors of William Ewart Gladstone (19th Century Prime Minister).
The church continues to be a centre for Christian networks and connections, as it has for over 500 years.
The church will be open for visitors with someone on duty to answer questions.
Biggar Puppet Theatre
You’re welcome to pop in and we will show you around our wonderful Victorian-Style Theatre. Guided Tours 11am & 2pm. Tearoom will be open selling lunches and cakes! The Antiques Fair is also on the same day, in the tearoom. Puppet shop, gardens and our own car park on site.
Biggar Youth Project - The Old Auction Ring
Built in the late 1800s, until 2001 The Old Auction Ring was the focus of Biggar’s livestock market and was also used for furniture sales. The premises were converted into a youth centre in 2002 and are currently undergoing an extensive renovation to a design by Fraser/Livingston Architects. Renovation has uncovered some forgotten features including the bell used to announce the start of auctions, and incorporates cutting edge retrofitting technology including solar PV panels, an air-source heat pump and hemp-based wall insulation to improve energy efficiency.
The Old Auction Ring dates back to a time when most small towns had their own market. Biggar’s livestock market was active until the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 the livestock auction for Clydesdale was centralised in Lanark and the Biggar site was redeveloped as a retail and light industrial area and as the home of Biggar Youth Project. More widely it links to the history of livestock rearing and droving within Scotland and beyond.
Doors Open Day will provide the opportunity to have a “sneak preview” of the ongoing renovation work at the Old Auction Ring (due for completion in November 2024). There will also be a small exhibition on the history of the building and the work of Biggar Youth Project.
Cairngryffe Church
Church built as Carmichael Parish Church about 1750.
Extensively remodelled 1905, interior walls have the appearance of ashlar stone work, exposed wooden roof beams. Stained glass designed by William Aikman, made by J. Powell and Sons (Whitefriars Glass) and a modern Stained-Glass window by Crear McCartney. Extensive suit of oak church furniture dating from 1905.
Known as the “little Cathedral of the Upper Ward.
Guided tours on demand.
Castlebank Horticultural Centre
Located in Castlebank Park, which was a former estate with manor house and stables.
For Doors Open Days join our educational gardener to learn about what we do and the wide array of plants we grow!
Crawfordjohn Heritage Venture
Small, interesting museum situated in the old Parish Church in Crawfordjohn - full of artefacts, documents and photographs depicting rural life in this corner of the Southern Uplands, plus family and social history of the area.
Volunteers will be on hand to show visitors around and answer any questions.
Gillespie Centre
Gillespie Centre opened in 1982 as “The Church Serving the Community.”
There will be a small display giving information about recent renovation and volunteers will be available to provide tours of the building.
The cafe will be open for refreshments.
Hamilton Mausoleum
Hamilton Mausoleum was one of the finest private tombs in the country and is now one of the town's most famous buildings. It was built as a tomb and monument to Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton and nicknamed El Magnifico. The tomb was incomplete at the time of his death in 1852. The chapel has a massive dome (over 36 meters high), magnificent bronze doors and a stunning floor made up of different marbles from around the world. One of the first things you will notice however is its amazing 15 second echo, one of the longest in the world! Two huge lion sculptures overlook the entrance to the crypt below where you can still see the niched for the bodies of the members of the Hamilton family.
The Chapel of Hamilton Mausoleum, with its world famous echo, highly decorative floor and ornate bronze doors will be open to the public.
While our knowledgeable guide will be available to answer questions, the Crypt of Hamilton Mausoleum will remain closed. We hope that our Doors Open Day visitors will return to support the building’s operation at one of our informative public tours throughout the calendar year.
St Bride's Church
St Bride’s Church was built as the parish church of the town of Douglas, but it was not to remain a regular church. Archibald ‘the Grim’, 3rd earl of Douglas, modified the church as a resting-place for his father, Sir James of Douglas, who died in 1330.
From then, the church became the mausoleum of the Black Douglas earls. Here you can find monumental effigies of the Douglas earls in three canopied tombs, while on the tower there’s the oldest known working clock in Scotland.
This Doors Open Days become a soap mason! Take inspiration from the incredible stone carvings at St Bride’s to create your own masterpiece in soap. This activity explores the theme of stonemasonry- stonemasons would have travelled around the country and often from much further afield to complete their apprenticeships and to work on Scotland’s churches, castles, and cathedrals. Carving styles historically connected a variety of geographic locations and traditions, and the continuation of traditional skills in the 21st century connects modern stonemasons to Scotland’s past.
Where possible we will update our listings to notify of cancelled, postponed and rescheduled events, however we STRONGLY ADVISE that you check with the venue/organiser in the first instance for updates.
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