The name Carstairs is Brittonic in origin. The first part of the name is the element cajr, of which the primary sense is "an enclosed, defensible site". The second part of the name is a lost stream-name, identical in origin to the Tarras Water in Dumfriesshire, derived from the Brittonic root *tā, "melting, thawing, dissolving", suffixed with -ar an adjectival suffix common in river-names, plus -s, the Scots plural.
History
A Roman fort was built at Castledyke in the first and second century AD. A later military castle occupied the site from at least the 12th century, known as Carstairs Castle. It has since been lost, but some underground remains have been found. A parish school was opened in 1619, and by 1754 William Roy recorded a sizeable farming village on the Lanark road toCarnwath and Edinburgh. Carstairs was made a burgh of barony in 1765. The mansion of Carstairs House was built in 1821-24 for Henry Montheith. 1848 saw the building of a railway station by the Caledonian Railway. By 1895 there was an inn and post office at the village. During the 1920s, the Ministry of Labour acquired Lampits Farm, Carstairs Junction, for use as a labour camp. By 1938 there were 35 so-called "Instructional Centres", with a capacity of over 6,000. Their role was to 'harden' young unemployed men and prepare them for work elsewhere. Lampits Farm was originally intended in 1929 to train young men in farm and forestry work, with a view to their emigrating to Canada or Australia; it became an Instructional Centre a year later. Many of the Carstairs inmates came from coal-mining and other industrial backgrounds in the West of Scotland. The Ministry of Labour sold the site in 1935, and it reverted to use as a farm. In its last months, the Ministry of Labour used the inmates to help the Scottish OfficePrison Department to build a new secure hospital. Carstairs has gained a certain notoriety as the location of the State Hospital, a maximum-security psychiatric facility where some of Scotland and Northern Ireland's most severe cases of mental illness are treated. Many of the patients have been convicted of serious offences and some are incarcerated at the facility indefinitely.
Transport
The main road running through Carstairs is the A70 road. Carstairs is served by bus route 37 and 137, operated by Stuart's Coaches of Carluke. Carstairs is served by Carstairs railway station on the West CoastMain Line and Carstairs is also the location of a triangular junction where the line to Edinburgh diverges from the mainline.
