Hamilton (Scotland)

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Graham Laird
Hamilton is a town on Clydeside in central Scotland. With a population of 54,000 it's the fourth-largest town in Scotland and lies 12 miles south-east of Glasgow, at the confluence of the River Clyde with the Avon Water. It was called Cadzow until the 15th century when it became the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, who over the following centuries often enlivened the place and sometimes improved it: their embellishments are today the reason to visit. Coal-mining was the main local industry; Hamilton was the county town of Lanarkshire and is now the base for South Lanarkshire Council, employing 16,000. It's separated by the Clyde and the M74 from nearby Motherwell, a former steel town.
This placename Hamilton is not directly related to the other Hamiltons of Ontario, Bermuda or New Zealand. Still less are the Dukes of Hamilton, now embodied by the 16th Duke Alexander Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (born 1978), to be confused with the unsuccessful Ontario hockey team of that name who became "Guelph Storm".

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