Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Cumbernauld is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated town in north Lanarkshire, positioned in the centre of Scotland's Central Belt. Geographically, Cumbernauld sits between east and west, being on the Scottish watershed between the Forth and the Clyde; however, it is culturally far more weighted towards Glasgow and the New Town's planners thought to fill 80% of its houses from Scotland's largest city to reduce housing pressure there.

Traces of Roman occupation are still visible, for example at Westerwood and, less conspicuously, north of the M80 where the legionaries surfaced the Via Flavii, later called the "Auld Cley Road". This is acknowledged in Cumbernauld Community Park, also site of Scotland's only visible open-air Roman altar, in the shadow of the imposing Carrickstone Water Tower.

For many years Cumbernauld was chiefly populated around what is now called The Village with the medieval castle a short walk away surrounded by its own park grounds. The castle frequently hosted visiting royalty and the grounds were famous for their white cattle which were hunted in the oak forest. The town began to enlarge as the weaving industry of the village was supplemented by mining and quarrying as travel across Scotland became easier due to the Forth and Clyde Canal and the railways being constructed. Cumbernauld railway station, though some distance from the village, improved communications with Glasgow, Falkirk and Stirling.

Cumbernauld was designated as the site for a New Town on 9 December 1955. This led to rapid expansion and building for about 40 years until the town became established as the largest in North Lanarkshire. At the UK census in 2011, the population of Cumbernauld was approximately 52,000, housed in more than a dozen residential areas. Cumbernauld's economy is a mixture of some manufacturing, mainly on its industrial estates, as well as service industries in the town centre and in sites close to the M80.

Cumbernauld was featured in Our World, the first live multinational multi-satellite television production.

Industry Some well-known companies use Cumbernauld as a base including Mackintosh, and Farmfoods who operate in Blairlinn. Cumbernauld in the last few years has seen a surge of business activity with the OKI UK headquarters moving across town to Westfield close to Yaskawa Electronics. Irn-bru makers A.G. Barr also has its world headquarters in the Westfield part of the town. The old Isola-Werke factory in the Wardpark area has been converted into film studios and production facilities for the TV series Outlander which frequently films within the town's greenspaces. In particular, the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Cumbernauld Glen reserve, has been used as a backdrop whose ancient oak forest remnant provides a convenient stand-in for 18th Century Highlands' scenes. In May 2016, North Lanarkshire Council agreed to the expansion the Wardpark site if funding could be found. Another industrial estate Lenziemill is home to Dow Waste Management and furniture maker Aquapac amongst others.

Wardpark Film and Television Studios Wardpark Film and Television Studios is a 200,000 square foot facility, based in the Wardpark Industrial Estate, owned by Hackman Capital Partners and partner Square Mile Capital Management. The Outlander TV series used Wardpark Studios as its base for sets. Several scenes from the TV series were shot in local woodland. CGI. for Marvel's Infinity War was filmed at Wardpark Studios.