Major towns within North Lanarkshire, such as Wishaw, Airdrie, Motherwell, Coatbridge and Bellshill are all around 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 km) to the west.

Harthill grew up as a result of the coal mining industries of North Lanarkshire, and some of the original old miners' homes remain.

The occupants worked in nearby Greenrigg and Polkemmet Collieries, which were in West Lothian and also Blairmuckill, Dewshill, Hassockrig and others in Lanarkshire.

If you stand facing the buildings with your back to the council tip, the windings stood to the right and the canteen was near where the bend on the road now is.

Harthill, Eastfield and Greenrigg form something of a single village entity now, but each retains its independent close-knit identity.

Harthill is located on the A8 and M8 corridors between Scotland's two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the village by-passed in 1965 by the first constructed section of the M8 motorway.

A modern and stylish replacement footbridge bridge over the motorway, which was designed by Buro Happold, opened in October 2008 and cost £5 million, completed the redevelopment.

Around 15 miles (24 km) to the north-west, Castlecary is another location alongside a motorway perceived to denote a shift between dialects as well as local authorities.

Rev Alexander Carlyle (26 January 1722 – 28 August 1805) a former moderator of the Church of Scotland and autobiographer, wrote in 1744 of the area, that the closest buildings around Kirk o'Shotts were a single cottage in Whitburn, 'Whitburn itself was a solitary house in a desolate county' and that 'there was scarce a cottage to be seen east of Kirk o'Shotts'.

1795 Parish records note a James Main of Muirhead Lands and Mathew Hanney as farmers in the area.

These were to be held adjoining (mal a propos[clarification needed]) Kirk o'Shotts on the third Tuesday of June and August.

By 1882 the Harthill village was thriving with many external business links and its own commercial bank and continued to attract incomers.

Sir John Inglis of Crammond organised the first coal pits in the area at Benhar, south-west of Harthill.

In 1806, two miles to the east of Harthill at Greenrigg, Lord Polkemmet sank a pit which employed thirteen miners, two boys and some labourers.

The Mines and Collieries Act 1842 banned women and children under ten years of age from working in coal pits.

After women were banned from working below ground, they continued to be employed in emptying and picking unwanted debris from the coal extractions.

The Baillies built a mansion in the grounds of the now public Polkemet Country Park and it became the family residence for over 300 years.

The grounds included stables, fodder store, a horse driven mill, a tack room for keeping carriages and later motor cars and tennis courts and bowling green.

In 1945 Polkemmet House became the 'Trefoil School', originated during the war when a group of people associated with the Girl Guide movement volunteered to take care of handicapped evacuee children there.

Indeed, one of the conditions laid down by Sir William Baillie for providing funds for its construction was that the school should be made available for Sunday Church services.

Thousands signed up to a 'Covenant' in support of maintaining Presbyterian church traditions which had now become illegal under penalty of death for anyone who failed to follow King Charles I Episcopal prayer book.

Anyone then found participating in a Covenanters service were at risk of death by the then Government because Church of England practice, prayer books and many customs had to replace the traditional Scots Kirk Presbyterian conventions.

Additionally Covenanters were of the opinion that Scotland's interests and identity were best served by maintaining an independent Scottish Parliament and became involved in invasions of England in 1644 and other struggles in Ireland.

Costing £2,400 and seating 660, the opening ceremony was celebrated on the first Sabbath of April 1877 by the ordination of the Reverend Alexander Watt the missionary to the charge of the new church.

James Wilson's Endowed School— Consisted of a single schoolroom on the site of the Main Street School, recently demolished.

One of the conditions laid down by Sir William Baillie for providing funds for its construction was that the school should be made available for Sunday Church services.

The two-storey building of some imposing stature was demolished after the opening of Alexander Peden Primary School further west along the Main Street in 1999.

The new school boasted modern features such as extendible dining room and gym hall with stage, state of the art media room, two open-plan classrooms, high tech security entry, alarms and CCTV systems linked into local police and fire stations.

The Polkemmet House estate was purchased by West Lothian District Council in 1978, and was redeveloped as a country park, opening in 1981.

A day of fun which begins with the colourful parade of floats, bands and people in fancy dress which marches from the Alexander Peden Primary School on through the streets of all three villages and on into Harthill Public Park.