Tarbrax

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Tarbrax (Scottish Gaelic: "An Tòrr Breac" - meaning "the speckled tor") is a small village in the Parish of Carnwath, County of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is at the end of a dead end road off the A70 road between Edinburgh and Carnwath.

Tarbrax is at 1000 feet above sea level on the edge of the Pentland Hills, and is bleak and windy.

It was built around a shale mine as housing for the miners beginning in the middle of the 19th Century. There is a large 'bing' or spent shale spoil heap in the village. The name is derived from the Lawhead Tarbrax estate within which it was built, which was then owned by David Souter Robertson a founder of modern Accountancy. This estate was originally based around Tarbrax Castle, a seat of the Somervilles, though by 1649 it had passed to the Lockharts, including George Lockhart of Tarbrax. There is nothing to be seen of the castle left today.

Nearby villages include Auchengray and Woolfords.

It once had its own railway station on a branch line from Cobbinshaw railway station on the Caledonian Railway Edinburgh to Carstairs Line, North of Auchengray railway station.

It is world wide renowned location of a UFO and abduction by aliens of two workmen who were on their way to Tarbrax. This is documented in the A70 abduction case written by Brian Allan [1].

Tarbrax had a pub called the Lazy Y, run as a country and western bar, and a Post Office. Both of these are now closed.

At the annual gala week, there is a race to the top of the largest shale bing and back down again.